Fact Checker: Rubio and his missed votes

Introduction

'Over the last three years, Rubio has missed important national security hearings and missed more total votes than any other senator. Politics first, that's the Rubio way.”

Source of claim: Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential bid, in a 30-second ad that began airing last month in Iowa.

Analysis

An official with Right to Rise said the group used GovTrack.us, which helps the public track bills and elected officials' legislative records, to calculate the missed vote totals for U.S. senators over the last three years.

According to the GovTrack website, the organization is not affiliated with the government and is funded solely through advertising. The organization is often cited as a source by the news media, including by the Associated Press, Fox News and the Washington Post.

The first part of Right to Rise's claim, that Rubio has missed important national security hearings, is difficult to check since the term 'important” is subjective.

With that in mind, this check will focus solely on the numbers - how many votes Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., missed in the three years.

A search of Rubio's profile on GovTrack, which pulls information from the U.S. House and Senate websites for data, shows that from 2012 to 2015, Rubio missed 177 out of 1,138 votes, or more than 15 percent of votes.

Compared with other senators in that three-year window, Rubio does hold the lead in votes missed.

Looking closer, Rubio's absence from Senate votes ramped up considerably after he announced his candidacy in April 2015.

According to GovTrack's 2015 report card, Rubio missed 120 of 339 votes, or about 35 percent. last year.

The next closest last year was former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who missed 96 out of 339 votes, or 29 percent. Fellow presidential candidate Ted Cruz, R-Texas, missed 80 of 339 votes, or about 24 percent.

Other presidential hopefuls fared better, with Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Rand Paul, R-Ky, missing 8 percent and 6 percent of votes in 2015, respectively.

Senators putting their congressional duties on hold during campaigns is by no means rare. Then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, missed 38 percent of votes in 2007. Former Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., missed 23 percent and 56 percent of votes in 2007, respectively.

Conclusion

Campaigning for president is a time-consuming endeavor and it's common for elected officials to miss votes to hit the campaign trail.

But that doesn't detract from the fact that Rubio has missed the most votes of any senator - presidential candidate or otherwise - in the last three years.

We give Right to Rise's claim an A

.

Criteria

The Fact Checker team checks statements made by an Iowa political candidate/office holder or a national candidate/office holder about Iowa, or in advertisements that appear in our market. Claims must be independently verifiable. We give statements grades from A to F based on accuracy and context.

If you spot a claim you think needs checking, email us at factchecker@thegazette.com.

This Fact Checker was researched and written by Mitchell Schmidt.