Tim Scott: Ideology and Voting 

DW-NOMINATE Score

Senator Scott's DW-NOMINATE score is a .729, which ranked him as the 5th most Conservative member of the 113th Congress once you exclude Senator Tom Coburn after his retirement.  He ranks behind widely renowned Conservatives like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee.  Scott's .729 score was actually the same score he was given in 2012 while in the House.  GovTrack has Scott ranked a bit lower, coming in at 15th, with a score of .83 on a 1.0 scale.  

ADA and Other Interest Group Scores

According to Americans for Democratic Action, Scott ranks with only a 10% score according to their standards.  According to ADA's website, part of their mission is "Americans for Democratic Action has and will continue to be a forthright liberal voice of this nation. We work to advocate progressive stances on civil rights and liberties, social and economic justice, sensible foreign policy, and sustainable environmental policy."  ADA's mission makes it clear why Scott, and fellow Republicans, score so low.  The lower the score actually means the more Conservative a member is, so the ADA's score goes in hand with the DW-NOMINATE score.  

Unfortunately for Scott, he did not make the ADA's "Zero" list as he did in their 2011 issue when he was a member of the House.  Losing such a distinction clearly has to be a loss to Scott.

When it comes to other interest groups, their ratings and scores once again show Scott's conservative position. Project Vote Smart, a well known website that provides inside information on political figures, has listed Scott as receiving these rankings from the respective interest groups.  

American's for Prosperity (2014) - 100%

American Conservative Union (2013) - 97% 

Center for Security Policy - Positions (2013-2014) - 100%

National Journal - Conservative on Economic Policy (2013) - 93%

Gun Owners of America (2014) - 93%

Heritage Action for America (2014) - 93% 

Progressive Punch (2014) - 0%

National Organization for Marriage (2014) - 0%

Americans for Democratic Action (2014) - 0%

Environment America (2014) - 0%

American Library Association (2013) - 0%

ACLU - Positions (2013) - 0%

None of the rankings are a surprise.  Scott ranks extremely high in interest groups covering economic, defense, and gun rights, all historically Conservatively-owned issues.  On the other end, he almost always ranks near 0% by Liberal groups and did so by groups promoting same-sex marriage, the environment, education, and other issues.  

Party Voting

When it comes to party voting, Scott ranks near the top.  According to VoteView, the same site who provides the DW-NOMINATE score, Scott scores a party unity score of 98.621. This ranks extremely similar to his 2012 score of 97.731 that he received while in the House.  Scott has stuck to his guns, no pun intended, and historically voted for gun rights, pro-life, and other Conservative go-to's. According to GovTrack, Scott ranked essentially in the middle of the pack, 52nd, when it came to joining bipartisan bills, the co-sponsoring of bills proposed by the opposite party. He ranks in a similar position to a few fellow noteworthy senators.

Scott clearly does tend to vote in his party's best interest, but he also tends to vote strongly against the position of President Obama as well.  According to a Congressional Quarterly report, he voted opposite of Obama 71% of the time compared to 29% of the time when he voted in accord with the president.  Despite this, Scott has gone across the aisle to get done what he wants when necessary. Scott and Cory Booker recently came together on the LEAP Act, legislation proposed to increase apprenticeships in the country.  As an article by the renowned political paper The Washington Post proposes, maybe the fact that both are "single, in their 40s, and shave their heads" is the real reason why the two came together here.  I personally think that this is unlikely, and believe that the real reason is that both are newcomers trying to make their mark in Washington by coming together on an important issue to both of them.

Making Sense of All of This

So, what does all all of this information mean?  Put simply, Scott is a very Conservative politician ideologically.  Because of this, he almost always tends to vote along the party lines, as both sides have become more partisan in recent years.  However, Scott is not afraid to support legislation that he believes is best for his nation or the his state.  The other big question is why Scott votes this way.  A large reason for this is the Conservative nature of South Carolina. When in the House, South Carolina had three representatives serving in the 112th Congress that rated in the top 20 most Conservative members.  Also, the senator Scott replace, Senator DeMint, ranked in the top three most Conservative members in every year he served as well.  From this, it is apparent that the state's voters like their members to vote along strongly Conservative lines.