RightDataUSA


Birch Bayh

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 22, 1928 in Terre Haute, IN
Died: March 14, 2019 in Easton, MD

Education:

  • Purdue University School of Agriculture, 1951
  • Attended Indiana State University, 1952-1953
  • Indiana University Law School, 1960

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1946-1948

Career:

  • Farmer
  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • IN House, 1954-1962 (Speaker, 1959)

Other notes:

  • Father of Evan Bayh


Election Results for Birch Bayh


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1962 34 IN D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 905,491 50.3%
1968 40 IN D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,060,456 51.7%
1974 46 IN D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 889,269 50.7%
1980 52 IN D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 469,849 100.0%
1980 52 IN D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 1,015,962 46.2%


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



Ideology Data for Birch Bayh


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
1963 35 Senate 9 56 70 5 D 76 6 82 88 0
1964 36 Senate 12 65 68 6 D 59 7 79 89 17
1965 37 Senate 10 74 73 8 D 70 14 84 94 14
1966 38 Senate 14 74 74 8 D 64 15 80 84 12
1967 39 Senate 16 57 65 14 D 64 17 75 67 15
1968 40 Senate 20 49 60 7 D 45 24 64 54 38
1969 41 Senate 9 71 73 9 R 47 35 77 93 8
1970 42 Senate 3 60 65 5 R 26 33 68 88 17
1971 43 Senate 2 63 58 5 R 22 46 59 96 0
1972 44 Senate 7 76 71 8 R 30 54 83 84 0
1973 45 Senate 7 83 81 5 R 30 53 86 90 8
1974 46 Senate 13 58 61 8 R 28 42 69 84 21
1975 47 Senate 3 51 55 2 R 26 27 56 72* 4
1976 48 Senate 6 63 63 4 R 21 49 65 100 3
1977 49 Senate 5 90 83 10 D 73 20 94 84 3
1978 50 Senate 14 78 83 9 D 74 14 91 89 5
1979 51 Senate 16 58 63 9 D 61 20 73 75 4
1980 52 Senate 21 57 61 15 D 54 22 77 79 22
Lifetime conservative rating:   10%


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.