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What they said. What happened.

Did U.S. officials keep their promises?

ActionOverWords Index tracks the specific promises made by U.S. officials, federal and state, and shows what actually happened to each one: kept, broken, or somewhere in between. Every promise is held to the same standard, whatever the official's party.

Open the interactive trackerHow it works
  • 700+Officials
  • 10,000+Promises
  • 50States covered

Counts are rounded down. The interactive tracker has the full, current roster.

How it works

Each entry is one specific promise, rated on what has actually happened, with the sources we found for it shown right on the entry.

  1. One specific promise at a time

    Each entry is a single promise an official made: a bill to introduce, a policy to carry out, a commitment to keep.

  2. Checked against sources

    Our standard is three kinds of sources for each promise: a government record, mainstream or left-leaning news, and right-leaning news. The aim is that a status never rests on one side's account.

  3. Rated on what happened

    Six statuses, from Not started to Completed or Broken, based on what has actually happened, not on intent.

  4. Scored the same way for everyone

    The AOW Score is a 0 to 100 average of an official's tracked promises, weighted by status. The formula is fixed and published, so anyone can recompute it.

Example · fully sourced

Cut permit wait times for new housing in half

In progress

Housing

  • Official recordAgency filing
  • News reportMainstream outlet
  • News reportRight-leaning outlet

Example · still being sourced

Bring high-speed internet to every rural county

Still finding sourcesNot started

Infrastructure

  • News reportOne outlet so far
Made-up examples to show the layout. Real entries link to each source.

Our sourcing standard

For each promise we look for three kinds of sources. The standard exists so a status doesn't rest on reporting from only one side of the aisle.

  • 1

    A government record

    A vote record, a signed bill, an agency filing or a similar primary record.

  • 2

    Mainstream or left-leaning news

    At least one outlet from the mainstream or left-leaning press.

  • 3

    Right-leaning news

    At least one outlet from the right-leaning press.

  • Sources you can check

    Every source we list is linked and labeled by type.

  • When the record is the proof

    A promise to introduce, sponsor or pass a specific, named bill is checked against the congressional record, which shows exactly what happened to the bill. Many entries in the tracker are of this kind.

  • Still being sourced

    This is a new dataset, and sourcing is still being completed for many entries. Many of them carry a Still finding sources tag in the tracker instead of being presented as fully verified.

  • A good-faith reading, open to appeal

    A status is our reading of the sources linked on the entry, not an audited record. If you think one is wrong, you can appeal it with a named source.

Read the full sourcing rules.

Six statuses

Every promise gets one of six statuses, based on what has actually happened so far.

  • Not started

    Nothing has happened yet.

  • In progress

    Active movement, not yet resolved.

  • Stalled

    Attempted, but momentum has died.

  • Compromise

    Something was delivered, narrower than promised.

  • Completed

    Kept as stated.

  • Broken

    Not kept.

A promise whose outcome has not been fully verified can show Undetermined instead. That is a placeholder, not a verdict, and it is left out of the AOW Score until it is resolved.

The same standard for everyone

How the Index is run, in four commitments.

  • Party is a fact, not a verdict

    A party badge is shown the way an election map shows one, and party is never assumed from context. Status colors are earned by outcome, never by party.

  • One standard, every official

    The same six statuses, the same sourcing standard and the same score formula apply to every official, current or former.

  • No ranking by party or score

    On these pages, officials are grouped by where they serve and listed alphabetically, or for the administration in the official order of office.

  • Independent and openly funded

    Run by Action Over Words LLC and supported by memberships, optional tips and advertising. None of those changes a status or a score, and we don't knowingly accept money from elected officials, candidates, campaigns, parties or PACs.

What is covered

Federal and state officials. Appointed officials such as Cabinet secretaries are included and marked Appointed in the tracker.

Covered

  • Federal: the President, the Vice President, Cabinet and senior White House officials, a set of sub-Cabinet law-enforcement and agency heads, and the U.S. Congress, including its non-voting members.
  • State: in every state, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor (or whichever office is first in succession) and the Attorney General. Some larger states go deeper into their other executive offices.
  • Former officeholders and candidates who ran and lost are kept in the Archive, and past administrations are kept alongside the current one, under the same statuses and the same sourcing standard.

Not covered yet

  • County and city government, school boards and special districts.
  • State legislatures and judiciaries.
  • Federal judges and independent regulatory boards such as the Federal Reserve, which are a different category: appointed, often deliberately apolitical, and with less to track in the same way.

What is and is not covered in full.

Browse

Start in the interactive tracker, or browse the pages published here.

Spot something wrong?

If a status looks wrong, or you want to suggest a promise to track, write to info@action-over-words.com or use the Contact form in the tracker (details on the contact page). Appeals need a named source, the outlet and headline being cited, so they can be checked the same way every other entry is. How corrections work.

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