Sorenson represented a riding that is very conservative even by the standards of rural Alberta; most of his territory has been held by a centre-right MP without interruption since 1935. He won the riding by some of the largest margins ever recorded in Canadian politics. He was first elected in 2000, taking 70.5 percent of the vote. It would be the only time that he dropped below 80 percent of the vote. In the 2006 federal election, he was re-elected with 82.5 per cent of the popular vote, the highest total recorded by a Conservative candidate in that election.