ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) released its ratings of the 2018 meeting of the Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday.

According to the organization, ACUF ratings are an initiative of ACUF’s Center for Legislative Accountability.

These ratings are designed to reflect how elected officials view the role of government and illustrate the differences between chambers of the legislature, while revealing lawmakers’ positions on a wide variety of issues that directly affect Tennesseans.

In the report, 83 lawmakers from Tennessee were awarded for the conservative voting. A handful of representatives from the region were among those recognized.

State Rep. John Holsclaw of Elizabethton was awarded for conservative excellence due to his voting record being between 90 to 100 percent conservative.

Also in the House, Timothy Hill was recognized for conservative achievement with his voting record being between 80 to 89 percent. State Senators Rusty Crowe and John Lundberg were also recognized for conservative achievement for their voting records.

In a release issued to the Elizabethton Star, ACUF reviewed each piece of legislation voted on in both the Senate and House to produce average scores of each chamber as well as individual scores for each sitting member.

Tennessee legislators voted on key issues during the 2018 session. In one or both chambers, they voted to ban taxpayer-funded abortions, prevent the unlawful seizure of property, and remove costly transportation regulations that burden commuters and casual drivers alike.

“There’s a reason Tennessee continues to rise to the top of our rankings for conservative states,” ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp said in a statement. “Legislators got it right when they prevented property from being seized from citizens who have not been convicted of any crime. We count that reform and a total ban on taxpayer-funded abortions as important wins for Tennesseans.”

The overall 2018 score for the Tennessee General Assembly fell by one-half percentage point compared to the 2017 session, with the Senate falling by eight percentage points (86 percent to 78 percent) and the House improving by seven percentage points (70 percent to 77 percent).