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Established by Charlie Cook in the 1980s, the CPR Race Ratings assess the competitiveness of all House, Senate, and Governors elections each cycle. Competitiveness is determined by several factors, including the district's political makeup, the candidates' strengths and weaknesses, the political environment in the state and nationally, and interviews with candidates and campaign professionals. Each race is ranked on a 7-point scale: Solid Republican, Likely R, Lean R, Toss Up, Lean Democratic, Likely D, Solid D. View the CPR Race Ratings.

For those wishing to get behind the ratings for individual races, subscribers can read the analysis of each of our analysts (House, Senate, Governors, National) and explore the Race Ratings pages which include district data and related non-partisan race analysis.

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First introduced in 1997, the Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠) measures how each state and district performs at the presidential level compared to the nation as a whole. A Cook PVI score of D+2, for example, means that in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, that district performed an average of two points more Democratic than the nation did as a whole, while an R+4 means the district performed four points more Republican. Whereas race ratings reflect our outlook for which party will win the next election in each state and district, PVI values take a longer view and seek to measure the underlying partisanship of each district relative to the nation as a whole.