Every year, we closely track legislator votes on each bill we are supporting or opposing. At the end of the session, we analyze each legislator’s overall voting record and create a scorecard, in order to better understand how they’re working for or against health equity. We consider legislators “Supporters” if they voted in favor of all our bills and “Opponents” if they voted against all of them. If they supported some but not all of the bills we care about, we consider them “Growth” opportunities, in the sense that their support for health equity has potential to grow.
The data for this scorecard is limited and may not be suited for direct comparison with past years’ tools. Not every bill on our list made it all the way through the legislative process, so some bills list committee votes or have votes from just one chamber. Also, not every health equity-related bill has been included, so legislator scores and grades should be considered helpful data in understanding trends and champions, but not as a comprehensive health equity score.
You can use the scorecard to track your legislators’ votes, thank your legislators for their support of issues that matter, and make decisions about which legislators to need to hear from you.
For more information, please contact our Director of Health Systems Change, Aubrey Hill.