The Cogburn Scale

How well Republicans who may face voters again keep their word: congressional leaders and committee chairs, governors and attorneys general, each weighed by how much power they had to keep it.

Among the Republicans tracked

Each dot is one officeholder, and the curve is the best-fit bell curve, and the small triangle marks the average. Click a dot to switch to that person.

Every promise

How the Cogburn Scale works
  • The line is the person’s score over time, from 0 to 100. The band above it shows who held power: solid when Republicans held the White House, Senate and House.
  • The rail below marks every milestone: an order signed, a bill passed, a court ruling, a reversal. Marks above the rail moved a promise toward kept; marks below are setbacks. Click one to see what happened and its source.
  • Why the line drifts down between marks. Each new promise starts at an even 50. Once its grace period passes (about four months, or its own deadline), an unkept promise loses value over the next 20 months or so, and falls further the more power the person held to deliver it.
  • The score credits delivery in full, gives partial credit for effort that counts more the less power they had, and penalizes promises left undone while they held the votes.
  • Who is included: Republicans who could face voters again. Governors and attorneys general who are retiring or just defeated are left out, and so is the president. Term-limited governors who are likely to seek other office, such as DeSantis, Kemp, Stitt and Sanders, are kept, as is Youngkin. A governor’s power depends on whether their party controls the legislature.
  • Ranks blend each score toward the group average by record size, so one kept pledge can’t top the list.
  • Every mark and every promise links to its source. Pledges are public commitments the member made in speeches, press releases, op-eds or interviews; personal-conduct pledges are left out.