The latest ideological ratings of Congress

The National Journal uses votes in the 2012 Congress to rank state congressional delegations according to ideology. You can find the entire results for the Senate here. Click here for the results for the House. Perhaps the most important part of the study is the votes on the specific bills used to determine who the liberals and conservatives are. Click here for the list. This takes the abstract ideological positions of "liberal" and "conservative" and makes them more concrete. It gives them some context.

Here's a map showing which state delegations are liberal, centrist, or conservative. Texas has the 13th most conservative state delegation.