Ahead of the vice presidential debate Tuesday, the American Conservative Union says Democrat Tim Kaine is the most liberal running mate the country has seen in 50 years. In fact, the group says Kaine has a more liberal record than Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist.
According to the organization’s ratings, Kaine, a senator from Virginia, is the only nominee to have ever received a 0 percent rating.
That rating, based on congressional voting records, puts him to the left of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (a 10 percent rating), then New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (8 percent rating) and Sanders (6 percent).
“He led the effort to bust the budget caps, voted to discriminate against faith-based organizations, refused to help the Kurds fight against ISIS, voted against the wildly popular 20-week pain-capable bill, stripped Congressional oversight of EPA regulations, voted for the Solyndra program over infrastructure needs, voted to increase taxes at every turn, voted to make it easier to ship terrorists out of Guantanamo and put them back on the battlefield,” ACU executive director Dan Schneider said of Kaine. “Liberals may approve of these votes, but regular Americans do not.”
The American Conservative Union says Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, Indiana’s governor and a former member of Congress, has aligned with them on policy issues 99 percent of the time. That makes Pence the most conservative vice presidential nominee in 50 years, ahead of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a 90.8 percent rating.
The rankings do not actually include all running mates over the last 50 years. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for example, is not included because she does not have a congressional voting record.
Here are the rankings released Monday by the ACU:
VP Nominee ACU Rating
Mike Pence 99.0
Dick Cheney 90.8
Jack Kemp 88.8
Paul Ryan 88.6
Bob Dole 82.4
Dan Quayle 80.3
Gerald Ford 64.0
Lloyd Bentsen 40.5
Joe Lieberman 15.1
Al Gore 14.6
Tom Eagleton 12.9
Joe Biden 12.4
John Edwards 12.2
Geraldine Ferraro 8.3
Edmund Muskie 6.4
Hubert Humphrey 5.0
Walter Mondale 3.7
Tim Kaine 0.