Sen. John Kerry

Former Senator from Massachusetts

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1985-2013	Senator	Massachusetts

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Sponsorship Analysis

Kerry is a far-left Democratic leader according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship.

Use this chart to compare Kerry to other members of the Senate on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Some of Kerry’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1985 to Jan 2013, Kerry missed 724 of 9,453 roll call votes, which is 7.7%. This is worse than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jan 2013. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1985 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Apr-Jun	116	1	0.9%	18^th
1985 Jul-Sep	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Oct-Dec	181	6	3.3%	55^th
1986 Jan-Mar	51	6	11.8%	82^nd
1986 Apr-Jun	103	6	5.8%	73^rd
1986 Jul-Sep	149	5	3.4%	82^nd
1986 Oct-Oct	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Apr-Jun	123	5	4.1%	53^rd
1987 Jul-Sep	120	3	2.5%	33^rd
1987 Oct-Dec	126	7	5.6%	80^th
1988 Jan-Mar	84	7	8.3%	67^th
1988 Apr-Jun	136	7	5.1%	73^rd
1988 Jul-Sep	127	7	5.5%	67^th
1988 Oct-Oct	31	5	16.1%	80^th
1989 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	2	4.2%	69^th
1990 Apr-Jun	95	1	1.1%	63^rd
1990 Jul-Sep	114	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Oct-Oct	69	10	14.5%	94^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Oct-Nov	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	61	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jul-Sep	117	1	0.9%	31^st
1992 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Feb-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	99	1	1.0%	42^nd
1993 Jul-Sep	109	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	86	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	1	1.1%	37^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	1	0.7%	26^th
1994 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	4	3.2%	55^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	2	1.2%	30^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	1	0.8%	45^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jul-Sep	121	1	0.8%	52^nd
1996 Oct-Oct	3	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	125	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jul-Sep	103	1	1.0%	52^nd
1997 Oct-Nov	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jan-Mar	52	3	5.8%	72^nd
1998 Apr-Jun	131	1	0.8%	52^nd
1998 Jul-Sep	109	1	0.9%	31^st
1998 Oct-Oct	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	111	1	0.9%	47^th
1999 Jul-Sep	112	2	1.8%	63^rd
1999 Oct-Nov	70	2	2.9%	73^rd
2000 Feb-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Apr-Jun	120	3	2.5%	67^th
2000 Jul-Sep	89	7	7.9%	83^rd
2000 Oct-Dec	38	4	10.5%	73^rd
2001 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2001 Apr-Jun	157	3	1.9%	79^th
2001 Jul-Sep	68	1	1.5%	48^th
2001 Oct-Dec	92	5	5.4%	97^th
2002 Jan-Mar	59	2	3.4%	48^th
2002 Apr-Jun	107	4	3.7%	85^th
2002 Jul-Sep	61	4	6.6%	91^st
2002 Oct-Nov	26	1	3.8%	73^rd
2003 Jan-Mar	112	39	34.8%	98^th
2003 Apr-Jun	150	87	58.0%	98^th
2003 Jul-Sep	108	102	94.4%	98^th
2003 Oct-Nov	89	66	74.2%	98^th
2004 Jan-Mar	64	50	78.1%	98^th
2004 Apr-Jun	88	85	96.6%	98^th
2004 Jul-Sep	42	42	100.0%	98^th
2004 Oct-Dec	22	17	77.3%	98^th
2005 Jan-Mar	81	1	1.2%	56^th
2005 Apr-Jun	89	5	5.6%	87^th
2005 Jul-Sep	76	1	1.3%	40^th
2005 Oct-Dec	120	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Jan-Mar	83	1	1.2%	46^th
2006 Apr-Jun	107	14	13.1%	93^rd
2006 Jul-Sep	73	4	5.5%	91^st
2006 Nov-Dec	16	0	0.0%	0^th
2007 Jan-Mar	126	2	1.6%	55^th
2007 Apr-Jun	112	10	8.9%	91^st
2007 Jul-Sep	119	9	7.6%	93^rd
2007 Oct-Dec	85	0	0.0%	0^th
2008 Jan-Mar	85	4	4.7%	89^th
2008 Apr-Jun	77	1	1.3%	26^th
2008 Jul-Sep	47	1	2.1%	35^th
2008 Oct-Dec	6	1	16.7%	89^th
2009 Jan-Mar	118	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Apr-Jun	96	2	2.1%	66^th
2009 Jul-Sep	89	0	0.0%	0^th
2009 Oct-Dec	94	9	9.6%	99^th
2010 Jan-Mar	108	1	0.9%	45^th
2010 Apr-Jun	96	2	2.1%	58^th
2010 Jul-Sep	44	1	2.3%	55^th
2010 Nov-Dec	51	1	2.0%	42^nd
2011 Jan-Mar	46	15	32.6%	99^th
2011 Apr-Jun	58	1	1.7%	28^th
2011 Jul-Sep	49	1	2.0%	50^th
2011 Oct-Dec	82	5	6.1%	91^st
2012 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Apr-Jun	109	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
2012 Nov-Dec	50	3	6.0%	75^th
2013 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
2013 Jan-Mar	11	6	54.5%	98^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills