The promise was made on a date. See what happened since.
Promise vs. Reality follows one specific pledge from a public official — a quote, dated and sourced — through every milestone, to a graded, evidence-backed status. Not a snapshot. A timeline.
No spam. One email when we launch in your area of interest.
“We will fully fund the youth center by next year.”
From spoken pledge to sourced verdict
Every promise on the platform starts as a document, not a summary — and every update after it carries the same standard.
A promise is logged
A specific, dated commitment is entered with its original source — a speech transcript, press release, campaign platform, or official statement. The exact quote is preserved.
Status updates arrive over time
As sourced evidence comes in — budget filings, votes, news coverage, official records — each milestone is added to the timeline with its own citation and date.
The promise reaches a graded status
Based on the accumulated evidence, the promise is graded — kept, partially kept, broken, stalled, or too early to tell — with the reasoning shown, not hidden.
Five grades. Every one backed by a record.
"Did they lie?" is the wrong question — it assumes intent we can't measure. We track outcomes against commitments instead.
Delivered as stated. The commitment was fulfilled within its stated scope and timeframe, confirmed by an independent record.
Some progress, short of the pledge. Action was taken, but scope, funding, or timing fell short of what was promised.
Explicitly abandoned or reversed. A public record shows the commitment was dropped, defunded, or contradicted.
No meaningful movement. The deadline has passed with no material progress and no official update.
Timeline hasn't matured. Not enough time has passed since the promise was made to fairly assess outcome.
“Politicians lie all the time — this one's just another liar.”
Vague "gotcha" framing treats every unmet promise as a moral failure and every kept one as a given. It can't be checked, and it can't be corrected. Our grades are narrower and more useful: they describe a documented outcome against a documented commitment — nothing about motive, only about the record.
One promise, followed for fourteen months
This is a fictional illustration of how a tracked promise reads end to end on Promise vs. Reality.
State Senator M. Torres
District 12
“I will introduce a bill in my first 90 days to cap insulin co-pays at $25 a month.”
Inauguration speech, January 9, 2024 — view full transcript
Promise made
Pledged during inauguration address to introduce a co-pay cap bill within 90 days.
Source: inauguration transcript, official recordDeadline missed, no bill filed
90-day window closed with no bill introduced. Office cited "ongoing stakeholder review" in a written statement.
Source: legislative filing system, press statementAlternative bill filed — different cap, different scope
A bill was introduced capping co-pays at $75/month for a narrower list of insulin products, materially short of the original pledge.
Source: bill text, state legislature archiveBill withdrawn from committee
The narrower bill was withdrawn without a floor vote. No successor bill has been filed as of this update.
Source: committee record, session Mar 14, 2025Graded broken: the specific $25 cap was never introduced as pledged, and its narrower substitute was withdrawn before a vote.
The record does the arguing, not us
Every milestone is sourced
No status update ships without a linked document — a transcript, a filing, a vote record, a dated news report. If we can't cite it, it isn't posted.
Corrections are open and timestamped
When a status or milestone is revised, the change and the reason for it stay visible in the timeline's history — nothing is quietly edited away.
Status is evidence-based, not opinion-based
Grades follow a documented rubric applied consistently to every official, regardless of party or position. No color-coded teams — just the record.
Built for anyone who wants receipts
The general public
Follow the promises that affect your neighborhood, school, or paycheck — without wading through legislative jargon or partisan spin.
Accountability journalists
Skip the manual archive-digging. Pull a sourced timeline and citation trail for any tracked promise as a reporting starting point.
Civic watchdog groups
Monitor multiple officials' commitments at once and surface patterns — which pledges consistently stall, and where follow-through is strong.
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