--- title: Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators description: According to the 2015 Bipartisan Index canonical: https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T22:26:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:35.800Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators, Report Says og:description: According to the 2015 Bipartisan Index og:url: https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4a14dd50bcf4f1a/69888a0fa988ca7cfc6b6e15/cruz_sanders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: cruz_sanders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators, Report Says twitter:description: According to the 2015 Bipartisan Index twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4a14dd50bcf4f1a/69888a0fa988ca7cfc6b6e15/cruz_sanders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators, Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Know Right Now: 2016 Flint Democratic Debate [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: 2016 Flint Democratic Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hWLsydwB.m3u8) (0:57)  _Published 2016-03-07_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 7, 2016 10:26 PM UTC  From left to right: Joe Raedle—Getty Images; Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 7, 2016 10:26 PM UTC Two 2016 presidential hopefuls are also the top [two most partisan people in the Senate](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/who-are-the-most-partisan-senators-220365), according to new data. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy published their [2015 Bipartisan Index](http://www.thelugarcenter.org/ourwork-Bipartisan-Index.html) on Monday, which measures how often each member of Congress co-sponsored a bill introduced by someone from their opposing party or attracted co-sponsors for their own bills from the opposite party. By this standard, in 2015, Bernie Sanders [ranked](http://www.thelugarcenter.org/ourwork-Bipartisan-Index.html) as the most partisan person on the Senate side, and Ted Cruz ranked as the second-most partisan. Though Sanders is an Independent in the Senate, he was counted as a Democrat. Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Donnelly were the top ranked bipartisan Senators, reaching across the aisle the most frequently. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid were not included in the ranking. Looking at [lifetime scores](http://www.thelugarcenter.org/ourwork-Bipartisan-Index.html) rather than just the 2015 data, Sanders and Cruz are not at the very bottom of the Senate list, but they still rank quite low for bipartisanship. \[[Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/who-are-the-most-partisan-senators-220365)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators, Report Says","datePublished":"2016-03-07T22:26:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:35.800Z","description":"According to the 2015 Bipartisan Index","url":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/","keywords":["Senate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4a14dd50bcf4f1a/69888a0fa988ca7cfc6b6e15/cruz_sanders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta4a14dd50bcf4f1a/69888a0fa988ca7cfc6b6e15/cruz_sanders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cruz_sanders","caption":"","creditText":"From left to right: Joe Raedle—Getty Images; Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/","name":"Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz Are the Most Partisan Senators, Report Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: 2016 Flint Democratic Debate","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/hWLsydwB/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-07T12:21:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hWLsydwB.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/","duration":"PT57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4250238/bernie-sanders-ted-cruz-partisan-senators/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```