FRC Action, the legislative arm of the Family Research Council (FRC), gave perfect voting scores Tuesday to a record 245 members of Congress for 2017, all of whom will receive the group’s “True Blue” award next month.
“It is very encouraging that a record number of members of Congress have achieved a perfect pro-life, pro-family voting record in the year following President [Donald] Trump’s inauguration,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement.
“It is evident that the positive and productive focus on values issues in this Congress is due both to the 2016 election and the Trump administration’s emphasis on the planks of the GOP’s conservative platform. As a result, we now see Congress following the will of the American people when it comes to pro-life and pro-family issues.”
The FRC scorecard took into account a dozen votes in the Senate and nine in the House of Representatives. The votes included the tax cut law, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the confirmation vote for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and appellate Judge Amy Barrett.
Votes on repealing Obamacare and cutting off taxpayer funds for abortion, along with an effort to eliminate taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood, also factored in the scoring.
Most Democrats scored at or near zero, including 41 with goose eggs.
“These ‘True Blue Members’ have voted to repeal and replace Obamacare, deliver long-needed tax cuts that are already providing much-needed relief to working families, stand for religious liberty, overturn [former President Barack] Obama’s transgender military policy, end the forced partnership between taxpayers and Planned Parenthood, and protect pain-capable babies,” Perkins said in the statement.
Most Democrats scored at or near zero, including 41 with goose eggs. Among them were Democrats in Republican-leaning states who face potentially difficult re-election campaigns this fall — Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Jon Tester of Montana.
Related: Evangelicals Perkins, Graham Defend Trump Against CNN Attacks
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had the highest score of any Senate Democrat at 25 percent — still well below the lowest-scoring Republican senator, Maine’s Susan Collins, who voted with the FRC 42 percent of the time.
Rep. Colin Peterson (D-Minn.) obtained a 56 percent, highest among Democrats. That was higher than Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), the chamber’s lowest-scoring Republican, with 44 percent.
“Americans should be encouraged to know that they have so many members of Congress and a president who have begun the work of rebuilding our nation, and protecting the very values that made America great,” Perkins stated.
PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage image: Tony Perkins, CC BY-SA 3.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: Tony Perkins, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)
Join the Discussion
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.