They Were a Little Left of Center Quiz

Answer: Fighting Bob

LaFollette previously served as Governor of Wisconsin and in the House of Representatives before becoming a senator. He was known for his progressive views, such as his opposition to World War I, support for women's rights, and for an economic safety net for the poor.

He has been named by several groups and historians as one of the best senators in American history, often placing at the very top. LaFollette is credited for starting a long history of popular, progressive politicians from Wisconsin, including his son Robert Jr.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Barack Obama, a Democrat, championed abortion rights, LGBT rights and an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all popular causes amongst liberals. Franklin Roosevelt, also a Democrat, promoted his New Deal economic policies that were considered groundbreaking for the middle class and the poor and were in stark contrast to the conservative led pro-business policies of the 1920s. Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, was well known for his conservation efforts and later founded the Bull Moose Party, a progressive party consisting of liberal former Republicans.

Ronald Reagan, a Republican, was a self-identified conservative who promoted a conservative economic policy toward taxes and a conservative foreign policy aimed at defeating the U.S.S.R. Reagan, for many years in his early life, was a Democrat, but he only ever held office as Republican and only held conservative views.

Answer: Elizabeth Warren

Prior to becoming a senator, Warren was actively engaged in the effort against big banks and businesses whom she believed were taking advantage of the middle class and poor for their own financial gain. She also chaired the oversight panel for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, popularly known as the bank bailout.

In the Senate, she became known as a tough critic of Wall Street and banks, and sought to restore bank regulations that had been repealed.

Answer: Cuomo

Mario Cuomo was first elected in 1983 and served three terms before unexpectedly losing in 1994 to George Pataki. His liberal policies included education and criminal justice reforms and expanded health care. He was also a notable critic of conservative Ronald Reagan and often led the charge against Reagonomics. Andrew Cuomo was first elected in 2010 and he pushed strict gun control laws, marriage equality and ethics reform.

Answer: The PATRIOT Act

Feingold believed that the PATRIOT Act unconstitutionally violated Americans' right to privacy. Conservative and other politicians, however, stated the PATRIOT Act was necessary to protect national security. Progressive values generally put more emphasis on privacy rights than national security.

Some of Feingold's other liberal achievements include campaign finance reform (which was struck down by the Supreme Court), assault weapons ban and healthcare reform.

Answer: Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in his 2014 reelection

Pat Roberts narrowly won the Republican nomination in 2014 after a strong challenge from Milton Wolf, a radiologist. Roberts than won an unexpectedly competitive and close general election against Independent Greg Orman.

Bob Bennett lost his primary in a nominating convention to Mike Lee, who went on to win the general election. Richard Lugar lost to Richard Murdoch in 2012 after Murdoch accused Lugar of being too liberal for a Republican when he supported President Obama's Supreme Court nominees and made allegations that Lugar did not live in Indiana. Murdoch lost the general election to Democrat Joe Donnelly after he made controversial comments about rape and abortion. Lisa Murkowski, who was always seen as a moderate Republican, lost her primary election to conservative judge Joe Miller in 2010. She did, however, win the general election via write-in campaign.

Other famous examples of Republicans losing primary elections to more conservative challengers are House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia 2014, Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware in 2010 when he was running for the Senate and Colorado Attorney General Jane Norton in her 2010 Senate election. Democrats were able to win the last two somewhat easily when they likely would have lost otherwise.

Answer: Maine

New England is generally the most liberal part of the United States so it is no surprise that its politicians are amongst the most liberal. Despite coming from the center-right Republican Party, Snowe and Collins were considered moderates and were actually consistently rated more liberal than a couple of Democratic senators by multiple political analysts during their tenure. Areas where they commonly sided with the Democrats were abortion rights and gay rights. Snowe and Collins both voted to acquit President Clinton during his impeachment trial.

Answer: Ann Richards

Ann Richards was the second female governor of Texas, after Miriam Ferguson, but Richards was the first elected without following her husband. Richards fought against laws allowing concealed carrying of firearms and promoted the role of women in government and in the workplace. Her daughter is Cecil Richards who became president of Planned Parenthood in 2006.

Answer: Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders advocated for Scandinavian-style socialist policies and believed America would like it if enough people were educated about that style of socialism as opposed to Soviet socialism. Things included in his platform were a right to health care, free college tuition and high taxes on the very wealthy and corporations.

Answer: Nancy Pelosi

When she became Speaker in 2007 during George Bush's time in office, Pelosi blocked his policies and pushed a more progressive agenda. However, she was able to meet the president halfway on certain important issues of the day. When Barack Obama became president in 2009, Pelosi pushed his liberal policies which included the Affordable Care Act.