Sen. Richard BlumenthalCertified

Election Legitimacy (29/30)

Blumenthal’s record on accepting certified election outcomes is unambiguous. Official Senate roll-call records from January 6, 2021 show Blumenthal voted “Nay” on the objection to Arizona’s electoral votes — i.e., he voted with the 93-senator majority to certify Joe Biden’s win rather than to sustain Republican objections. He has also been an aggressive public critic of efforts to undermine the 2020 result: at a Judiciary Committee hearing he denounced Republican efforts to discredit the results of the 2020 election by making false, disproven claims of “voter fraud,” including Attorney General Bill Barr’s recent change to a Department of Justice policy concerning election fraud investigations . More recently, in confirmation hearings for Trump judicial nominees, he has repeatedly and pointedly pressed nominees to affirm that Biden won in 2020, framing refusal to answer as disqualifying — for example telling one nominee “I am just amazed by the insult to this committee of witness after witness seeking to be a federal judge subverting our Constitution and showing you have no independence” . He also voted for a bill to create an independent January 6 commission, releasing a statement after Republicans blocked it. The near-perfect score (rather than a full 30) reflects that his record, while consistently strong, has not been tested by a personal high-profile election loss he had to publicly concede.

Voting Rights (24/25)

Blumenthal is a consistent cosponsor and floor advocate for major voting-rights legislation. He is a listed cosponsor of the Freedom to Vote Act, cosponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Joe Manchin, Alex Padilla, Jon Tester, Raphael Warnock, Chuck Schumer, Tammy Baldwin, Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal , and has spoken repeatedly in support of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, saying “There is no greater freedom or more fundamental right than the right to vote… The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act restores critical protections against voting discrimination and secures equal opportunity for all Americans to participate in the political process” . He co-led bicameral legislation, the Freedom from Intimidation in Elections Act, which would help ensure every voter and election worker has the right to cast their ballot and conduct their official duties free from fear and intimidation . Notably, his Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act — making it a federal crime to hack voting systems — was signed into law, reflecting sustained legislative engagement on election administration integrity.

Checks and Balances (24/25)

Blumenthal, a senior Senate Judiciary Committee member, has a substantial record of executive-branch oversight. He has pushed for subpoenas of uncooperative witnesses (e.g., urging Chairman Grassley to “issue a subpoena to compel him [Trump Jr.] to fully account for his actions in front of the American people and to provide this Committee with the documents we need to fulfill our important oversight responsibilities” ), and as Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued subpoenas to a Saudi sovereign wealth fund subsidiary for oversight purposes. He joined FOIA requests explicitly aimed at DOJ “stonewalling” of oversight, and requested a GAO report — a nonpartisan watchdog — that found DOGE failed to provide enough information to verify 96 percent of its claimed grant savings , then publicized the findings. On judicial independence, he has consistently confronted nominees, including telling one that her “fear, apparently, of Donald Trump…is disqualifying” , and after the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling stated “The Supreme Court has put lawbreaking presidents like Donald Trump above the law. This cravenly political decision to shield President Trump grants him a legal armor that no other citizen enjoys.” He has also called for ethics investigations into executive-branch officials, including Jared Kushner and DOJ official Emil Bove.

Conduct in Office (20/20)

No nonpartisan Ethics Committee, GAO, or Inspector General finding of wrongdoing against Blumenthal was located. A 2022 complaint from the group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust alleged STOCK Act disclosure violations, but this was a private watchdog complaint, not a Senate Ethics Committee finding, and no subsequent formal committee sanction was found. A widely reported 2010 controversy over his characterization of his Vietnam-era military service (a New York Times report that said Blumenthal misrepresented his Vietnam service record ) predates his Senate tenure and was media reporting, not a nonpartisan governmental body’s finding, so per the rubric it does not factor into this score. Full marks stand absent any documented nonpartisan finding.

Bipartisan Cooperation (6/10)

Blumenthal has notable bipartisan wins on democracy-adjacent legislation, most prominently the Defending the Integrity of Voting Systems Act, introduced with U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to improve election security, which passed the Senate unanimously and was later signed into law. He also co-authored the original STOCK Act (on congressional insider trading/ethics) with Republican Senator Mark Kirk, which passed and was enacted. However, his marquee voting-rights priorities — the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — have been pursued on largely party-line bases and blocked by Republican filibusters, with Blumenthal himself criticizing “Senate Republicans” for blocking that legislation, limiting the scope of cross-aisle achievement in this specific area.