CLUB FOR GROWTH’S 2020 ALABAMA ECONOMIC AND NEW MISSED VOTES SCORECARDS NOW AVAILABLE

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, The Club for Growth announced that no Alabama state legislators scored high enough to be a “Defender of Economic Freedom” on the new Club for Growth Foundation’s 2020 Alabama State Economic Votes Scorecard. In addition, the Club for Growth Foundation released its new Missed Votes Scorecard for Alabama, which sheds light on which state legislators are doing their jobs by voting and which ones are not. Yellowhammer News published an exclusive report on the announcement.

The Club for Growth recognizes elected officials who, on the Foundation’s scorecard, score 90% or better in a given calendar year and maintain lifetime scores of 90% or better as Defenders of Economic Freedom.

“The Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard is already the gold-standard in publishing the voting records of Senators and Members of the U.S. House of Representatives on economic legislation, and the State Economic Scorecards help educate citizens about which elected officials are champions of pro-growth policies at the state level,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh.

“Alabama is widely considered a ‘one-party’ state, but people would be mistaken if they thought the ‘one party’ was the conservative, limited government GOP.  Instead, the Republicans in Montgomery have been advancing big government, anti-growth policies over the last several months.  Worst, these abysmal 2020 ratings are just part of the story.  The politicians in the state capitol routinely avoid casting votes.  It’s borderline fraudulent for these lawmakers to take a paycheck only to skip out on doing the one thing taxpayers expect them to do – vote!”

 

Key Takeaways on Alabama’s 2020 Economic Scorecard:

Alabama Senate

  • Average Republican Score: 21%
  • Average Democrat Score: 6%
  • Highest-Rated Republican: Sen. Shay Shelnutt (SD-17) – 38%
  • Highest-Rated Democrat: Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier (SD-23) – 10%
  • Lowest-Rated Republicans: Sen. Cam Ward (SD-14) – 12%
    • Sen. Thomas Whatley (SD-27) – 12%
    • Sen. Jack Williams (SD-34) – 12%
  • Lowest-Rated Democrats: Sen. David Burkette (SD-26) – 0%
  • Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (SD-20) – 0%

Alabama House

  • Average Republican Score: 15%
  • Average Democrat Score: 0%
  • Highest-Rated Republican: Rep. Andrew Sorrell (HD-03) – 69%
  • Highest-Rated Democrat: Rep. Prince Chestnut (HD-67) – 10%
  • Lowest-Rated Republican: Rep. Ritchie Whorton (HD-22) – 7%
  • Lowest-Rated Democrat: Several with 0%

Alabama Missed Votes Scorecard

The Club for Growth Foundation also released its new Missed Votes Scorecard for Alabama’s 2020 legislative session.  This scorecard simply calculates how often lawmakers show up to vote and how often they miss votes.  For 2020, the results were:

Alabama Senate

The average Alabama state senator missed 15% of the total 323 floor votes.  Senator Priscilla Dunn missed the most votes – 323 votes out of 323 – for a score of 100%.  By missing only 4 votes, Sen. Steve Livingston received the best score of just 1%.

Alabama House

The average Alabama house member missed a whopping 30% of the total 359 floor votes.  Rep. Juandalynn Givan (HD-60) missed the most votes – 249 votes out of 359 – for a score of 69%.  By missing just 15 votes, Rep. Joe Faust (HD-94) had the best score of just 4%.

NOTE:  Lawmakers miss votes for a whole host of reasons, including medical issues, family concerns, or prior commitments.  But they may also miss votes because they are purposely ducking an issue or do not want to upset leadership.  The Club for Growth Foundation makes no judgment on why a lawmaker misses votes.  The Foundation simply publishes this quantified information for educational purposes only.