When Cory Gardner ran for U.S. Senate in 2014 he told Coloradans he was a “different kind of Republican.”
Throughout that campaign he also benefitted from TV ads saying his Democratic opponent Mark Udall voted with President Barack Obama “99 percent of the time.” The Atlantic magazine called it Gardner’s “broken record attack line.”
In light of that, this new data point is worth noting:
Cory Gardner & Dean Heller are Trump MVPs so far. Voted with him 100% of the time despite being from Clinton states. https://t.co/2II0GTL1Qi pic.twitter.com/QzGfY1XuGD
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 3, 2017
That’s from Nate Silver at the data journalism site FiveThirtyEight where reporters are tracking members of Congress in the era of Donald Trump, tallying up how often they vote with the new president.
Colorado’s Republican U.S. senator, Cory Gardner, currently tops the list for how often a member of Congress “votes in line with Trump’s position.”
A couple caveats here. One, it’s early! Trump has been in office just two weeks. And, yes, a lot has happened in that time including explosive executive orders and controversial cabinet nominees. Members of Congress have also voted on budgetary measures and on rolling back regulations. The second caveat: It’s not like he’s an outlier. In fact, 50 of our 52 U.S. senators have voted with the new president 100 percent of the time. The only two who haven’t are Maine’s Susan Collins and Kentucky’s Rand Paul. Even consistent Trump critics Ben Sasse of Nebraska, John McCain of Arizona, and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham hold 100 percent ratings with Trump’s agenda so far.
But Gardner and Dean Heller of Nevada are the only two senators from states that Democrat Hillary Clinton won who are voting 100 percent with Trump so far, which is why they are on top of FiveThirtyEight’s list.
Colorado’s Democratic U.S. senator, Michael Bennet, sits at 50 percent.
As for methodology, FiveThirtyEight looked at 15 measures and nominations on which the Trump administration has taken a public position.
“The Trump score is a simple percentage showing how often a senator or representative supports Trump’s positions,” the site reports. “To calculate it, we add the member’s ‘yes’ votes on bills that Trump supported and his or her ‘no’ votes on bills that Trump opposed and then divide that by the total number of bills the member has voted on for which we know Trump’s position.”
The 15 issues FiveThirtyEight based its score on include repealing a rule requiring energy companies to reduce waste and emissions; repealing a rule requiring energy companies to disclose payments to foreign governments; a budget resolution to repeal the Affordable Care Act; supporting South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for UN ambassador and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State; repealing a rule requiring some federal contractors to report labor violations, and a permanent ban on the use of federal funds for abortion or health coverage that includes abortions, among others. (Click here to see all of them.)
We reached out to a Gardner spokeswoman to see if the office had any context they wanted to add and will update this if and when we hear back.
In the month leading up to the Nov. 8 presidential election, Gardner distanced himself from Trump. In October, he called on the then-Republican presidential nominee to step aside, and Gardner said he would not vote for Trump. More recently he called on Trump to fix what he called an “overly broad executive order” that banned travel to the U.S. by people from some majority-Muslim countries. He also called the Australian ambassador after reports of a controversial phone call between Trump and that country’s prime minister, and he has “joined a bipartisan effort calling for sweeping new sanctions against Russia.”
You can keep an eye on where Gardner stands with Trump’s agenda in the future here.
Photo by Gage Skidmore for Creative Commons on Flickr.
If you’re looking for sanity, decency, honor or dignity, you DON’T look to Corey Gardner. EVER. If you want someone who will kiss ass to republicans every time, he’s your boy. He’s a good little German, going along with every country destroying the right right wants to do. Who cares what the PEOPLE want, which by and large are NOT what the republicans want and do to us.
Who other than the extreme right wing LUNATICS wanted a ban on travel from ANYWHERE? But you KNOW that Corey boy is all for it. There’s NO justification for it, but you can bet that he thinks it’s just GREAT! Do you REALLY want your health care taken away, now that you can actually potentially afford it? The VAST majority of us DON’T want that, but look what’s happening, you’re gong to lose your health care because republicans look at you as a bottomless pocket just waiting to be picked.
That’s the right wing goal, to rob us all for every penny they can squeeze out. that’s what their whole privatization nonsense is about. THEY get to run all those big industries that will do those things that we do for ourselves as a nation. They get to profit on the things that actually make us a decent country to live in. And it won’t be a nice place any longer once you get to fight against all their corporations with NO recourse for the screwing they want to give you.
And Corey is all for that kind of life for YOU and me. THIS is what you people actually WANT in office, a guy whose goal is to take everything away from you and take it for themselves, charging you for the privilege of using any of it. Is THAT what you think America is about? It what Corey think it’s about. And the rest of the damned republicans, too.
He’s NOT on YOUR side, he’s on his own.
When Gardner votes for DeVos, it will confirm his 100% choice of partisan support over principle.
Backing someone who opposes the mission of an agency, in this sadministration, is to be expected.
Backing a Secretary that has neither educational or professional accomplishments in the field of her responsibilities is odd, but not unprecedented.
But backing someone who arguably plagiarized a part of her written testimony (required after a less than competent hearing) and out and out lies about the accomplishments of charter schools — that will take Sen. Gardner well past ordinary partisanship and into the realm of accepting anything with the Republican brand on it.
But backing someone who conceals
Some staffer in Gardner s Denver office told constituents that it’s not Gardner’s job to disagree with anything coming from the oval office. If constituents disagree with a presidential act or nominee then the constituents should call the WH. When Gardner’s received approximately $48,000+ from Betsy DeVos and Amway Alcott and 97% of the callers are urging him to vote no on her confirmation vote and when Gardner is dead set on voting for her, you have to ask who’s being paid. It’s not the protesters / constituents, it’s the public servant himself.
He is voting his way out of Colorado.
Doesn’t suit his alternate reality.?
You sir, are the worst kind of hypocrite. 90% of the calls you receive are against Betsy DeVos, yet you intend to vote for her. Shouldn’t this be about whats best for the country and not what’s best for Cory Gardner? How do you sleep? Have you no shame? By the way I’m not being paid, unless you want to send me some of that $49,000 you got from her. Bought and paid for. We’re watching, we’re keeping score and we vote.