Every cohort of approximately 800,000 Americans living in a contiguous geographic area biennially choose someone to represent them in the United States Congress. However, to paraphrase a 1980s meme, “it depends on what the meaning of represent is.” For that matter, it should also depend on what the term “contiguous geographic area” means, but I will hold that discussion for another time. For argument sake, let’s assume “represent” means that a member of the House is the VOICE in Washington, D.C. who speaks for the people who elected him. If it is fair to ask, “How well is he or she performing that public service,” how might we make that determination.
In a highly segmented and divided society, there are a lot of one issue voters. For example, if you are pro-life, how do you know if your representative has your back. I chose this example because my congressman added a post to his official Facebook page on January 22 with the headline, “Bean Receives an A+ for his Pro-Life Stance in the House.” His grade was based on 11 roll call votes supported by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a special interest group with the mission to “combine politics with policy, investing heavily in voter education to ensure that pro-life Americans know where their lawmakers stand on protecting the unborn.” SBA Pro-Life reports it has just 900,000 members nationwide. Never mind that 63 percent of Americans believe access to abortion in all or most cases should be legal (Pew Research). Sixty five percent want the federal government to PROTECT abortion access nationwide (Gallup). And 68 percent oppose making it illegal to receive abortion pills by mail (Public Religion Research Institute).
I know what you’re going to say. District 4, like most of NE Florida is ruby red. You cannot rely on national numbers to know what FL-4 voters want. I am not so sure. Consider the following numbers related to voter registration. As of February 20, 2024, FL-4 had 209,858 registered Republicans, 186,958 Democrats, and 105,509 independents/no party affiliation. Breaking down the Pew Research national data on abortion support by party, 85 percent of Democrats say abortion should be legal in all or most, 41 percent of Republicans, and 65 percent of independents. If the percentages in each category holds in FL-4, you get the following.
Democrats/.85 x 186,958 = 161,464
Republicans/.41 x 209,858 = 86,041
Independents/.65 x 105,509 = 68,581
To many people’s surprise, the numbers suggest 316,086 out of 502,325 total registered FL-4 voters (62.9 percent) believe that abortion should be legal in all or some instances. Which raises the question, who does Aaron Bean represent? Is it the voters of FL-4 or the special interest (SBA Pro-Life America) that gave him an A+ for doing exactly what they, not we, wanted?
However, the makeup of the next House membership is not up to the voters of FL-4 as I have written previously. It depends on voters in 435 individual districts who care about a lot of things. To help the voters in all those districts decide whether their incumbent is serving them well, I have created an ESP scorecard consisting of seven questions involving largely consensus issues. Start off assuming your House member is representing you well and deserves a score of 100. For each NO answer deduct 10 points.
- Americans disapprove 61-38% of Trump tariffs (Quinnipiac). Has your representative publicly objected to Donald Trump’s imposition of these tariffs without congressional authority as required under Article I, Section 7, which reads, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.”
- Americans are concerned 72-25% that the US will get too involved in Venezuela (Reuters). Has your congressman publicly opposed U.S. intervention in Venezuela without congressional authority as required in Article I Section 9. “To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.”
- Americans oppose the US taking control of Greenland by a 75-25% margin. 86% oppose taking Greenland by military force (CNN and ABC News). Has your representative told Donald Trump this is something nobody needs and nobody wants?
- 78% of Americans support extension of the ACA subsidies (Kaiser Family Foundation). Did your congressman vote for HR5145 to extend ACA subsidies for three years?
- 61% of Americans opposed Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House in order to build a ballroom (Yahoo/YouGov). Did your congressman speak out about demolishing the East Wing of the White House and building a $400 million ballroom funded by private corporations, most of which do business with the federal government?
- 87% of Americans believe the US should support Ukraine, Taiwan and NATO. (Reagan National Defense Survey). Did your representative vote AYE on HR5692, which provided military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. Has he or she publicly objected to Donald Trump’s actions which demean and threaten the existence of NATO?
- By a margin of 74-22%, Americans want full release of the Epstein files (Change Research). After voting for HR4405, which required release of all the Epstein files within 30 days of passage, has your representative supported holding Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice in contempt of Congress for violating the law.
For the record, my congressman Aaron Bean got a “NO” on all seven questions for a score of 30 out of 100. Like Trump collecting trophies, he thinks A+ ratings from special interest groups and the number of photo ops are the metric of success. In November 2026, he may learn otherwise. He is not alone; he has a lot of company in the GOP/MAGA caucus. District-by-district it is time to elect a Congress that represents “WE, THE PEOPLE.” Not Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation, corporate donors, the NRA or any other special interest group to which your House member pays more attention than to his/her constituents.
One more thing. If you do not know the answer to these questions for your representative, just ask him or her. But bring along a good book or the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle. If your representative is anything like ours, you are in for a long, long wait.
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP
Do the other 25% actually FAVOR taking control of Greenland? [Or Iceland?] How did the 25-percenters do on the followup question, “Why?”
Are there any polls asking “ Did your congressperson speak out about the presence and actions of ICE? Surely an important ongoing topic?
The poll number I need is the percentage of Americans who disapprove of ICE deployment in major cities. And I’m convinced the disapproval rate may have spiked significantly in the last 48 hours.