Voters get plenty of adjectives about politicians. They get very few numbers computed the same way for everyone. This project scores officials on two independent axes — did they do what they said (Honesty), and did the place get better on their watch (Performance) — under rules fixed before anyone was scored. The name is the whole idea: every official gets a grade from the same public data — not cheerleading, and not from any campaign.
We publish the methodology, the data sources, and the exact inputs behind every number. If you think a score is wrong, you don’t have to trust us — you can recompute it. If it’s still wrong, dispute it, and the ruling gets published too.
Ground rules
- No promise rating that can damage a reputation — an Abandoned or Betrayed — will publish without an evidence trail and two agreeing human reviews. Performance scores are different: they are computed from public government data under preregistered rules, and publish with the full math attached so anyone can check them.
- Every rule must read the same with the party labels swapped.
- Uncertainty is badged, never hidden — provisional scores, thin data, and coverage gaps are labeled on the page.
- Corrections are logged publicly. No silent edits.
Who runs this, and who pays for it
Political Grades is an independent project, funded entirely by its founder. It takes no money from any party, campaign, PAC, advocacy organization, or donor with a pending rating — no advertising, no sponsorships, no grants. Nobody scored on this site has any financial relationship with it.
Data sources
Outcome data comes from federal statistical agencies — currently the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Local Area Unemployment Statistics), with each state’s exact BLS series linked on its page; Census, BEA, CDC, FBI and EPA series are staged for future methodology-versioned releases. The governor roster was independently verified in July 2026, and the sources used are listed on every state page. The complete dataset behind the site is downloadable at /pwr.json.
Disputes & corrections
Officials and campaign staff named on this site may file a dispute against any published rating, and any reader may flag an error: write to challenge@politicalgrades.com. Disputes are reviewed against the published methodology and answered publicly within 30 days, and every correction is recorded in the public changelog & corrections log.