RightDataUSA


Lamar Alexander

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 3, 1940 in Maryville, TN

Education:

  • Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1962
  • New York University, J.D., 1965

Career:

  • Newspaper reporter
  • Law clerk, 1965-1966


Election Results for Lamar Alexander


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 33 TN R Governor Primary 1 120,773 48.5%
1974 33 TN R Governor General 2 455,467 43.8%
1978 37 TN R Governor Primary 1 230,922 86.0%
1978 37 TN R Governor General 1 661,959 55.6%
1982 41 TN R Governor General 1 737,963 59.6%
2002 61 TN R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 295,052 53.7%
2002 61 TN R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 891,420 54.3%
2008 67 TN R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 244,222 100.0%
2008 67 TN R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,579,477 65.1%
2014 73 TN R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 331,705 49.7%
2014 73 TN R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 850,087 61.9%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Lamar Alexander


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
2003 62 Senate 97 2 R 95 2 98 10 85
2004 63 Senate 94 4 R 100 0 99 15 92
2005 64 Senate 90 8 R 82 13 96 5 88
2006 65 Senate 94 6 R 93 7 100 5 72
2007 66 Senate 83 15 R 77 20 98 21 76
2008 67 Senate 84 7 R 70 26 91 26 67
2009 68 Senate 76 23 D 69 31 99 26 68
2010 69 Senate 86 12 D 51 46 98 10 80
2011 70 Senate 82 18 D 62 36 98 20 75
2012 71 Senate 79 16 D 58 36 95 15 68
2013 72 Senate 78 17 D 43 50 95 5 63
2014 73 Senate 77 16 D 64 30 92 7 71
2015 74 Senate 82 16 D 64 32 97 10 50
2016 75 Senate 68 31 D 61 29 98 21 42
2017 76 Senate 95 2 R 92 2 96 0 72
2018 77 Senate 90 8 R 94 0 95 5 81
2019 78 Senate 81 4 R 78 1 82 0 61
2020 79 Senate 76 5 R 74 4 80 5 78
Lifetime conservative rating:   71%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.