In simplified form, DW-NOMINATE assigns each representative a score ranging from -1 (most liberal) to +1 (most conservative) based on roll-call votes. To quantify this, we used a dataset called DW-NOMINATE, first developed by political scientists Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal in the early 1980s and refined and updated since. Ideologically speaking, they’re among the most conservative of House Republicans, though not all are on the rightmost end of the spectrum. Darrell Issa of California, for example, said he could neither confirm nor deny Issa’s membership in the caucus.)

A handful of other House members who reportedly belong to the group could not be confirmed. Pew Research Center has confirmed the identities of 36 Freedom Caucus members through representatives’ public statements, their comments to the media or their offices’ direct responses.

Amid all the coverage of House Republicans’ unruly efforts to select a speaker who can command broad support from their fractious ranks, one name keeps coming up: the House Freedom Caucus. But what, exactly, is the House Freedom Caucus?

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