GREENSBORO, N.C. — "Kamala Harris, the most liberal senator in the Senate," President Donald Trump said in a video on YouTube. It's a claim his campaign has also made in a blast email to supporters. That's hard to imagine with folks like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren also in the Senate, but it's true that Harris was ranked the "most liberal" in 2019 by GovTrack.
"That doesn't tell you the whole story though," Elon political science professor Jason Husser said.
The GovTrack ranking looks at what bills the senator sponsored and voted for. Husser thinks you also need to take into account the politician's overall stances presented in speeches and on their campaign website.
"My personal impression is that she is liberal, but she's not nearly the level of liberal that you would see wanting massive government intervention in both the social and economic sphere," Husser said.
Keep in mind who Harris is being compared with in the rankings. UNCG Professor Hunter Bacot says the most extreme members of a political party tend to be in the House of Representatives, like A.O.C. who was elected to represent parts of New York City. As a senator, Harris was elected to represent a whole state.
"I don't think the Senate has many extremely liberal members, in all honesty. Because senators represent the state. And I don't care how liberal the state is, it's never going to be so left that someone can be labeled as left-winged. It's hard to win a statewide election and be too extreme," Bacot said.
So Donald Trump's claim is true but needs context.
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