How It Works
Fantasy sports, but for Congress
You draft real Senators and Representatives, and your team scores points when they actually do the job. Real votes, real bills, real committee work, updated every week. Strictly non-partisan, because the scoring measures what a legislator does and never what they believe.
Built for civics teachers, political news junkies, and anyone who has ever wondered whether their own Representative is any good at this.
Join the WaitlistHow You Play
From Opening Gavel to Year-End Champion
First, pick how you play
Two ways in, and you can play both over time. Jump in solo against the Incumbents, or take on real people in a league.
Play the Incumbents
Play Now starts an instant solo game against five Incumbents, automated opponents that draft their own teams of real members of Congress. You pick your own slate, set your weekly lineup, and score points from what those legislators actually do: casting votes, sponsoring bills, and moving legislation. Go head-to-head against the Incumbents all season. No league to set up, no waiting, and no cost.
Free to play
You vs 5 Incumbents
Join or Create a League
When you want real opponents, join a public league for free. Or upgrade to Civics Fan ($19.50/year, half off the regular $39 through the 119th Congress) to create your own private league for friends, classmates, colleagues, or a newsroom, with 4 to 12 teams, commissioner controls, and custom scoring. Everyone you invite plays free; only the person who creates the league pays.
League Name
Draft Format
Teams: 8 teams
Then, how a season works
However you started, every season runs the same way from here.
Build Your Slate
How you draft depends on the game: pick one at a time against the Bots, let a free public league auto-draft the moment the sixth player joins, or draft live in snake order in a private league.
- › 15 legislators per slate: 10 in your active lineup, 5 in reserve.
- › Your active lineup needs at least 3 Senators and 5 Representatives.
- › Fall below either minimum and the lineup scores nothing that week. We warn you in-app every day and email you Sunday morning while there is time to fix it.
- › Under 10 active, or with no Key Legislator, you still score, just less.
- › Swap reserves into your lineup any week: for a recess, a skipped markup, or a floor vote.
- › No party rules. Run one party or go bipartisan; only participation scores.
Rank Once, Draft Every Time
Your draft board is your own ranked list of Congress, and you only build it once. Swipe through legislators, sort them into must-draft, target, and pass, and the board is saved to your account. Every automatic draft you play then picks from your list, in your order, instead of simply taking the highest scorer available. You can reorder it any time, and if you would rather not rank anyone, leave it alone and the draft takes the best available legislator for you.
Congress Scores Points
Every vote cast, bill introduced, cosponsorship, committee report, amendment, and law signed automatically updates your slate score. Data is pulled from Congress.gov throughout the day. No manual entry, ever.
The Season Plays Out
Weekly head-to-head matchups build your record through 29 scoring weeks. The top teams advance to a three-week playoff: Wildcard, Semifinals, and Championship. The winner is named Congress Champion for the year. Their playoff point total becomes the target every league chases the following season.
💰 Follow the Money
When Congress goes on Election Recess, free leagues go quiet.
Civics Fan leagues keep playing through Election Night.
Follow the money into Election Day.
Every even year, both chambers enter the Election Recess before Election Day, and congressional scoring pauses. Follow the Money takes over for Civics Fan leagues: a shared board of campaign finance questions, drawn from public FEC filings, refreshed each week through the recess.
Drawn from public FEC filings
Every question comes from official campaign finance disclosures, public record, no betting markets. Real money, real filings, real calls.
Closer races pay more points
The tighter the money, the bigger the reward. A lopsided gap pays 5 points, a dead heat pays 35. You are calling races decided by dollars, not guessing blowouts.
Boosts playoff seeding without touching your record
Follow the Money points add to your season total only. Your win-loss record is untouched, but a strong run can lift your playoff seed heading into the bracket.
Everyone answers the same board
The whole league sees the same weekly slate, so no one wins on who they drafted. Same questions, same points on the line, settled on the same public filings.
"Free play sits out Election Recess. Civics Fan leagues stay engaged all the way through Election Night."
💰 Follow the Money
Through the Election Recess · Shared league board
This Week's Board · Shared by the League
Outside spending in the Maine Senate race tops $12M?
$5.6M of $12.0M so far · Yes / No
Outside spending in the Georgia Senate race tops $15M?
$5.3M of $15.0M so far · Yes / No
Which race draws the most outside spending this month?
ME $5.6M · GA $5.3M · NC $4.9M · MI $3.5M · Pick a race
📈 Follow the Money Leaderboard
Civics Fan Leagues Only
Follow the Money is included with Civics Fan ($19.50/year, half off the regular $39 through the 119th Congress). Free play sits out the Election Recess.
See Pricing →Cancel anytime · Instant access
Season Structure
One Season. One Champion.
Fantasy Government mirrors the real congressional calendar. Head-to-head scoring pauses during every recess, but your reps keep earning District Work Points for the bills they introduce and cosponsor back home. Every week Congress is in session, your slate is earning points.
New here partway through the year? You haven't missed anything. Sign up any time and your schedule is built from the current week forward: you play every remaining regular-season week, then the same three-week playoff as everyone else.
Opening
Season opens with the session
Summer
Summer break 🏖️
Fall
Fall weeks return
Week 29
Standings lock
Recess
Election Recess 🗳️
Wildcard
Playoffs begin
Final
Champion named 🏆
Regular Season
Opens with the congressional session
Twenty-nine scoring weeks across the year. Congress earns your points every week it is in session, and recesses pause head-to-head scoring automatically. During a recess your reps keep working back home, and the bills they introduce and cosponsor earn District Work Points, a tiebreaker for standings and playoff seeding. When the final regular-season week closes, standings lock and the playoff field is set.
📅 Standings lock when the regular season ends
🏆 Top teams advance to playoffs
Playoffs
Begins when the regular season ends
Three weeks of high-stakes scoring. Wildcard week sends the top two seeds straight to the semis with a bye. The top seed picks their semifinal opponent. One final week later the championship game names the Congress Champion for the year.
📅 Wildcard · Semifinals · Championship
🏆 Congress Champion crowned
The Congress Championship
Awarded at the end of every season
Each year the champion sets a playoff point record. The next year that number sits on the board as the target for every playoff team to chase. Beat it and your name goes in the record books as a Congress Championship holder, the highest honor in Fantasy Government.
📅 Beat the Year 1 champion total
🏆 Immortalized in league history
Season schedule based on the official 119rd Congress legislative calendar (Senate.gov). Subject to change if Congress adjusts its recess schedule.
Complete Scoring System
Every Point Explained
Points are awarded for legislative participation and effectiveness. Political positions, party affiliation, and the content of legislation never factor in. Scoring is identical for every legislator regardless of party.
Vote Cast (Yea or Nay)
+2Earned each time the member votes yea or nay on a recorded floor vote. Roll-call votes are the clearest public record of where a member stands, and showing up to cast them is the most basic duty of the job.
Hundreds per week
Vote Present
0The member was on the floor but formally declined to take a side, voting present rather than yea or nay. It is a deliberate, recorded choice, sometimes used to avoid a conflict of interest, so it is neutral by default.
Deliberate abstention
Vote Absent
−3The member was absent and cast no vote on a recorded question. Missed votes are tracked publicly and can signal anything from a scheduling conflict to disengagement, so this is a penalty by default.
Missed vote penalty
Bill Introduced (solo or 1 cosponsor)
+1The member formally introduced a bill with no co-sponsors. Thousands of bills are introduced each Congress and most never advance, but introducing one is how every law begins.
Most common
Bill Introduced (2–9 cosponsors)
+3A newly introduced bill that drew a small handful of co-sponsors. Early backers signal a member could line up support before the bill is even referred to committee.
Coalition forming
Bill Introduced (10+ cosponsors)
+8A new bill that launched with a broad coalition of 10 or more co-sponsors. A large co-sponsor list out of the gate is a strong early indicator that legislation could actually move.
Broad coalition
Commemorative Resolution
+1A ceremonial resolution — recognizing a day, month, group, or event, or expressing the sense of the chamber (HRES / SRES / HCONRES / SCONRES). These cannot become law and are scored flat, regardless of how many co-sponsors they attract, so a commemorative never outscores substantive legislation.
Recognizes a day, month, or group
Bill Cosponsored
+1The member added their name in support of a colleague's bill. Co-sponsorship is the main way members build the coalitions a bill needs to advance, without being the lead sponsor.
Very common
Cross-Party Cosponsor Bonus
+3Awarded when a co-sponsorship crosses party lines. Bipartisan support is one of the strongest predictors that a bill will actually become law, so it earns extra credit here.
Each cross-party cosponsorship
See who earns it most →Cross-Party Vote Bonus
+5Awarded when a member votes yea on final passage of a substantive bill whose lead sponsor is from the other party. Voting to pass the other side's bill is a public, recorded act of reaching across the aisle, and it is rarer than a bipartisan co-sponsorship, so it earns more.
Voting yea to pass the other party’s bill
See who earns it most →Bill Passes Committee
+15A bill the member sponsored was approved by its committee and sent to the full chamber. Committees are where most bills stall, so clearing this step is a meaningful hurdle.
Monthly
Bill Passes Chamber
+25A sponsored bill won a majority vote in the full House or Senate. The large majority of introduced bills never reach a floor vote, let alone pass one.
Monthly
Bill Signed Into Law
+50A sponsored bill cleared both chambers and was signed by the President, or enacted over a veto. This is the rarest and most valuable outcome in the legislative process.
Rare but major
Amendment Sponsored
+1The member proposed a specific change to a bill being debated. Amendments are how legislation gets shaped on the floor and in committee, line by line, before a final vote.
Occasional
Amendment Adopted
+10One of the member's proposed amendments was accepted into the bill. Getting an amendment adopted takes negotiation and timing, so it rewards effective legislating, not just effort.
Rare
The Key Legislator Multiplier
One fixed mechanic that applies on top of the points above, the same in every league.
Key Legislator
2×Each week you name one legislator as your Key Legislator, and all the points they earn that week are doubled. Choosing well means anticipating who will be busiest, whether it's a member with a packed floor schedule or a chair whose committee is about to act.
Four Things to Know
How Congress Actually Works
The scoring rewards understanding the institution. A little civics goes a long way on draft day, and in life.
Voting attendance tells a real story
Legislators who miss fewer than 5% of roll-call votes are doing the core work of the job. Consistent attendance adds up fast across a full session.
Majority party moves more legislation
Members of the majority party chair committees and control the floor schedule, so their bills reach committee passes (+15) and chamber passes (+25) more often. It is how the institution actually works.
House and Senate work differently
House members vote far more frequently than Senators. A slate with both chambers captures the high-volume work of the House and the higher-stakes chamber passes that typically originate in the Senate.
Committee assignments signal real power
Members on Appropriations, Judiciary, Finance, Armed Services, and other active committees see more bill activity and milestone scoring. That is where the legislation actually moves.
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked
How do I earn points in Fantasy Government? +
Your drafted legislators earn points for real legislative activity: voting Yea or Nay, introducing and cosponsoring bills, seeing bills pass committee and clear a chamber, sponsoring and adopting amendments, and having bills signed into law. Missing a vote costs −3 points. See the scoring grid above for exact values, including the tiered bill-introduction bonuses that reward coalition-building. Only your 10 active legislators score each week; your 5 reserves wait in case you promote them.
Is Fantasy Government partisan or biased? +
No. Fantasy Government is strictly non-partisan. Points are awarded for legislative activity regardless of party, ideology, or the content of legislation. We do not take political positions.
How many legislators can I draft? +
Each team drafts a 15-legislator slate: 10 in the active lineup plus 5 reserves. Your active lineup must include at least 3 Senators and 5 Representatives. You can promote reserves into the active lineup each week. In Civics Fan leagues, the league leader can adjust total slate size and chamber balance for their league.
How often are scores updated? +
Scores update throughout the day. The sync engine pulls the latest votes and bill activity from Congress.gov and posts new score events to your league feed automatically.
Is Fantasy Government free to play? +
Yes, the Free plan lets you join leagues, draft legislators, and track scores. Civics Fan ($39/year, or $19.50/year during the founding period through the 119th Congress) lets you create private invite-only leagues with custom scoring rules and Follow the Money. Everyone you invite plays for free.
What happens if I join or create a league after the season has started? +
No problem. When a league is created mid-season, the schedule is built from the current week forward. Past weeks are skipped and your slate only earns points from the week your draft is completed. You will play fewer regular season weeks but the same three week playoff runs for everyone.
Can I use Fantasy Government in my classroom? +
Absolutely. Fantasy Government aligns with AP Government & Politics curriculum standards. Educators can request a free classroom account from our For Educators page.
Ready to Follow Congress?
Currently in private beta. Request access or join the waitlist to get notified at public launch.