Methodology

This site reflects the opinions of one person, including what values constitute being progressive, which organizations best express those values, and which candidates meet those criteria. While most candidates appear here based solely on their running for office, some may be missing — their website may be hard to find, may contain little information, or may have been non-functional when we checked it. Some candidates may also be emphasized or de-emphasized based on personal opinion or other factors.

Organizations

The organizations we track were chosen based on familiarity, experience, and a feeling that they share progressive values. There are many PACs (political action committees) that promote progressive candidates, but their rosters can be chosen for any number of reasons that aren't transparent. We tend to focus on organizations that are more action-oriented rather than purely electoral.

We do not weigh any one organization over another — all endorsements count equally. The more endorsements a candidate has from these organizations, the higher they will appear in the Top Candidates cards. Candidates with 6 or more endorsements receive a full featured card; those with 3 to 5 endorsements appear in the "Honorable Mentions" section below. Only one candidate per congressional district or Senate seat is shown in each section — the candidate with the most endorsements in that race.

Data Sources

Besides importing endorsement lists from organizations, we use several external data sources to determine which candidates are running in each district and to provide context about incumbents and races. Most sources are imported approximately daily, though timing varies.

Status of Primary Elections

The whole point of this site is to help you find the most progressive candidates for each congressional district — who may or may not be the incumbent. Incumbents have a large structural advantage in primary elections, so they are not emphasized here. Incumbents are not included in the Top Candidates cards.

After a primary election is held, we show progressive candidates who did not win only on the Thank You page, along with a list of the endorsements we had noted for them.

Progressive Scoring and Ranking

While some candidates are ranked based on the number of endorsements they have and pledges they have signed, others are ranked and displayed based on our own "progressive score" — a 0–100 rating based primarily on their stated positions on their campaign websites. We use a combination of AI-assisted and human evaluation to score candidates across ten issue areas, in roughly descending order of importance:

  • Economic Justice & Labor
  • Healthcare
  • Climate & Environment
  • Campaign Finance & Anti-Corruption
  • Housing & Cost of Living
  • Immigration
  • Criminal Justice
  • Foreign Policy & Military
  • Democracy & Voting Rights
  • Vision vs. Reaction (affirmative policy-led platform vs. primarily reactive framing)

Progressive scoring is not an exact science. Scores reflect only what we were able to find on a candidate's campaign website at the time of evaluation — a candidate with a thin or vague website may score lower than their actual views warrant. We only publish scores for candidates with the highest ratings, on the Unsung Heroes page. Lower scores are used internally to rank and filter candidates, but are never shown publicly — we have no interest in shaming a candidate simply for not hitting all the right progressive talking points on their website.

Featured Candidates for Upcoming Elections

At the top of the Top Candidates page, we show mini-cards for non-incumbent candidates whose primary election is coming up soonest. One card is shown per congressional district or Senate seat in those states.

The featured candidate for each district is chosen using a heuristic that weighs endorsements and progressive score together — not a strict formula. As a general rule:

  • Endorsements carry more weight. Whichever candidate has the most endorsements from the organizations we track is usually preferred. A candidate with more endorsements wins the slot even if their progressive score is somewhat lower.
  • Score gaps can override endorsement leads. If a candidate scores dramatically higher on our progressive rubric — roughly 20 or more points — that score advantage may outweigh a modest endorsement lead, particularly if the leading endorsee scores below about 40%.
  • Omit districts with weak candidates. If no candidate in a district scores above 30%, that district is omitted entirely rather than promoting someone we can't endorse. Similarly, many incumbents are excluded — especially those who appear on our Wall of Shame for votes against progressive values, even if their overall progressive score from their campaign website is relatively high.
  • Ties. When one candidate leads on endorsements and another leads significantly on score, or if two candidates are approximately tied on both endorsements and score, we sometimes show both on a single card rather than picking one.

Unsung Heroes

We search FEC filings and the web and Secretary of States' websites to find all candidates running for Congress. Using a combination of artificial intelligence and human evaluation, we score each candidate on the progressive rubric above. Candidates who meet all of the following criteria appear on our Unsung Heroes page:

  • Score of 80 or higher on our progressive rubric
  • No more than 2 endorsements from the organizations we track
  • Not an incumbent
  • Running in a district not already represented by a progressive candidate with 6 or more endorsements
  • The highest-scoring candididate (or with 5 points of the highest-scorind candidate)

Candidates scoring 70 or higher appear as Honorable Mentions; those scoring 60 or higher appear as "Also Worth Mentioning."

Additional Candidates on the Full List

The full candidates list may include brief bios for candidates beyond those on the Unsung Heroes page. A candidate will appear with a bio if they meet any of the following criteria:

  • Unsung Heroes, Honorable Mentions, and "Also Worth Mentioning": Candidates from our Unsung Heroes tiers (scores ≥60) always appear with bios on the full list, regardless of other conditions.
  • Site moderator's personal endorsements: A small number of candidates are personally endorsed by the site moderator and shown with bios even if they haven't received endorsements from the tracked organizations.
  • Most progressive candidate with no endorsed competition: A candidate scoring 50 or higher, with no endorsements from tracked organizations, who is the highest-scoring progressive in their district, where at least one other Democrat is also running — so there is a genuine primary choice to highlight.
  • Significantly more progressive than endorsed competition: A candidate scoring 60 or higher who outscores every endorsed candidate in their district by at least 10 points, provided no candidate in the district has 6 or more endorsements.

In all cases, a challenger's bio is suppressed if the incumbent is a Democrat with a known progressive score higher than the challenger's — suggesting the district is already represented by a more progressive option.

Limitations and Caveats

  • Progressive scores are based on stated positions, not voting records. A candidate's platform may not reflect how they would actually legislate.
  • Campaign websites change. Our evaluations may lag behind updates to a candidate's platform.
  • Some organizations delay updating their lists after an announcement, so data may be slightly out of date.
  • Our methodology evolves as we learn more. Scores, rankings, and chosen organizations from earlier in the cycle may not reflect our current criteria.
  • None of the evaluations on this site have anything to do with electability, fundraising levels, or campaign viability. We evaluate progressiveness only.