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What are Weekly Power Rankings?

The Practical Progress Power Rankings offer a weekly snapshot of who’s actually driving progress in American politics, not just who’s the loudest or most viral. This system tracks the movers, shakers, and difference-makers in the fight for a more just, equitable, and inclusive future. Each score is grounded in real data: voting records, media presence, legislative momentum, campaign finance transparency, and ideological alignment. It’s not guesswork, it’s accountability with structure. But this isn’t just another policy report card. These rankings are designed to be dynamic, accessible, and yes, sometimes controversial. Because democracy works best when people are paying attention, and we believe political analysis should be simple and easy for the masses to digest. The rankings were built with the politically disengaged in mind, to help people who’ve tuned out find a way back in. By cutting through the noise and highlighting who’s actually delivering results (not just talking about them), we aim to make politics more transparent, more relatable, and harder to fake. As we grow, we’ll keep sharpening the methodology to include even more transparent, inclusive, and difficult-to-manipulate data. Our north star is simple: to spotlight those doing the work, challenge those falling short, and make politics feel a little less distant, and a lot more urgent.

What's actually measured?


Media Impact (15%)

What it measures:
A politician’s visibility, influence, and media narrative across trusted national and local outlets.

How it's scored:
Each week, we analyze 20–50 news articles per politician, examining:

  • Policy Impact – Are they pushing bold ideas or backing meaningful legislation?
  • Public Perception – What’s the tone of the coverage? Are they being championed or challenged?
  • Controversy – Constructive controversy (e.g. drawing fire from extreme right-wing outlets) is often a plus.
  • Media Clout – Are they covered by high-impact, high-credibility sources?
  • Real-World Outcomes – Does media attention coincide with actual policy movement?

Sources include: Perigon, NewsData.io, and rigorous article-level content analysis.


Progressive Consistency (45%)

What it measures:
How reliably a politician votes in line with progressive priorities.

How it's scored:
Pulled from ProgressivePunch.org, this score considers:

  • Crucial Votes – Lifetime and recent stances on transformative legislation.
  • Overall Alignment – Long-term voting patterns, with more weight given to recent activity.
  • Penalties – Missed votes or procedural maneuvers that block progress are counted.

This is the cornerstone of our ranking. Consistency matters.

Legislative Power (20%)

What it measures:
A politician’s ability to shape, sponsor, and pass legislation.

How it's scored:

  • Tenure – Experience counts, but isn’t everything. Scaled to avoid over-weighting incumbents.
  • Committees – Influence on key committees (like Judiciary or Appropriations) boosts scores.
  • Leadership – Serving as Chair, Whip, or in party leadership adds weight.
  • Youth Bonus – We amplify newer voices: members under 45 receive a modest boost.
  • Bills Sponsored – We assess each official’s 10 most recent bills for relevance and impact using trusted legislative data sources and policy tagging.

Sources: Congress.gov, GovTrack, LegiScan, and verified internal legislative indexes.

Donor Ethics (10%)

What it measures:
The values behind a politician’s fundraising sources.

How it's scored:

  • We review the top 100 industry donors per candidate (from OpenSecrets.org).
  • Industries are scored on a progressive rubric from -10 to +10.

Examples:

  • Labor Unions → +10
  • Environmental Groups → +10
  • Oil & Gas → -10
  • Private Prisons → -10
  • Real Estate → -5

The final score is a weighted average reflecting the ethics of financial support.

Ideological Alignment (10%)

What it measures:
Where a politician sits on the ideological spectrum, particularly on economic and social issues.

How it's scored:

  • Based on DW-NOMINATE data from VoteView.
  • First-dimension scores below -0.3 are considered progressive.
  • Scores trending toward the center or right are penalized.

We also make corrections for independents and others whose ideologies are often misclassified by rigid models.

Final Score: The Metascore

Formula:
(0.15 × Media Impact) + (0.45 × Progressive Consistency) + (0.20 × Legislative Power) + (0.10 × Donor Ethics) + (0.10 × Ideology)

Each component is normalized on a 0–100 scale. The final list reflects weekly changes based on fresh data, and previous rankings are archived with movement history and key highlights.

Update Schedule

  • Media & narrative scores update every 7 days.
  • Votes, bills, and legislative activity are refreshed weekly and may soon be fully automated.
  • Every score is recalculated using the latest information available.

Transparency & Integrity

We don’t publish anything we can’t trace back to a real, verifiable source.
Articles are reviewed for tone and credibility. Legislative and voting data is pulled directly from official records. If something can’t be verified, it doesn’t make the cut.

Important Note

These rankings are a blend of public records, media analysis, and editorial judgment. They’re designed to inform and challenge, not to coronate or cancel. Every metric is rooted in data, but how that data is weighted reflects deliberate choices.

If you're looking for raw data without interpretation, we encourage you to explore:

We're here to spark deeper engagement, not to have the last word. Dig in. Disagree. Push for more. That’s the point.