WASHINGTON, D.C. — A newly-released congressional voting report analyzing roughly 265,000 votes over three years found significant ideological shifts within both major political parties, with Republicans moving further to the right and Democrats showing early signs of internal division.
The report, published by the Institute of Legislative Analysis, examines the voting behavior of all 535 members of Congress and places lawmakers on a 0 to 100 ideological scale based on policy positions reflected in recorded votes.
According to the study, “Republican moderates are voting further to the right and closer to President Trump’s agenda,” with the number of Republicans scoring below 60 percent on the ILA scale dropping sharply “from 33 in 2023 to just 3 in 2025.”
At the same time, the report found that traditional limited-government Republicans have declined, noting that “the number of Republicans scoring above 90 percent on the ILA scale fell by more than half, from 63 in 2023 to 27 in 2025.”
The findings suggest a shift in party alignment rather than uniform ideological change, with the report stating that “the bigger shift appears to be the movement of the broader Republican Party toward a more populist and nationalist direction.”
This political shift is reflected in individual lawmakers as well. According to the report, Sen. Josh Hawley’s score declined from “83.93 percent in 2023 to 70.13 percent in 2025,” while other lawmakers often associated with ideological change remained relatively consistent.
The study found that “despite frequent claims” that Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie had shifted politically, both “have remained relatively consistent over the last three years.” Greene’s score changed from “95.87 percent in 2023” to “93.18 percent in 2025,” while Massie’s remained nearly unchanged at “93.6 percent in 2023 and 93.62 percent in 2025.”
On the Democratic side, the report indicates continued cohesion overall but growing internal differences on specific policy issues.
“Democrats remain more unified than Republicans overall,” the report states, but are “starting to fracture on border, crime and national security,” with the number of Democrats scoring above 10 percent on the ILA scale “more than tripling, from 28 in 2023 to 98 in 2025.”
ILA Chief Executive Officer Ryan McGowan said the report’s methodology is designed to capture long-term trends rather than isolated voting differences.
“While scorecards based on a handful of votes can be useful for showing differences among lawmakers, our annual index covers every substantive vote and is designed to show how political philosophies and party dynamics change over time,” McGowan said.
He added that “different wings of the Republican Party are increasingly gravitating toward President Trump’s policy agenda,” while “on the Democratic side, we are beginning to see more internal variation in what has otherwise been a party far more unified in its voting than Republicans.”
The report covers congressional voting activity from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2025, and assigns lawmakers a numerical score intended to provide a consistent measure of ideological alignment.
According to the Institute, “a score of 100 represents the strongest alignment with reduced federal spending, narrower regulatory power, a smaller scope of government, and strict adherence to constitutional structure and civil-liberties protections.” In contrast, “a score of 0 reflects the opposite.”
The organization states that its scale is designed to offer a stable framework for evaluating political behavior over time, noting that labels such as conservatism or progressivism “can shift over time,” while its scoring model provides “a consistent baseline for measuring party behavior and ideological movement.”
The Institute for Legislative Analysis described the report as “the most expansive ideological dataset on the U.S. Congress,” emphasizing its use of comprehensive voting data to track changes in legislative behavior.
The findings add to ongoing discussions about political polarization and party alignment in Congress, particularly as both parties adjust to evolving policy priorities and internal dynamics.
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