RightDataUSA


Lloyd Bentsen

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 11, 1921 in Mission, TX
Died: May 23, 2006 in Houston, TX

Education:

  • University of Texas, LL.B., 1942

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Air Force, 1942-1945 (awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross)

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Hidalgo County judge, 1946-1948
  • Founder/operator of financial holding company
  • U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1993-1994

Elected Office:

  • Democrat party candidate for Vice-President, 1988

Other notes:

  • Uncle of Ken Bentsen


Election Results for Lloyd Bentsen


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1948 27 TX D U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 31,801 36.1%
1948 27 TX D U.S. House District 15 Primary Runoff 1 11,586 59.8%
1948 27 TX D U.S. House District 15 General 1 27,402 100.0%
1948 27 TX D U.S. House District 15 Special 1 2,396 100.0%
1950 29 TX D U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 54,901 100.0%
1950 29 TX D U.S. House District 15 General 1 18,524 100.0%
1952 31 TX D U.S. House District 15 General 1 63,767 100.0%
1970 49 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 816,641 53.0%
1970 49 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,194,069 53.5%
1976 55 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 970,983 63.5%
1976 55 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,199,956 56.8%
1982 61 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 987,153 78.1%
1982 61 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,818,223 58.6%
1988 67 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 1,365,736 84.8%
1988 67 TX D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 3,149,806 59.2%


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



Ideology Data for Lloyd Bentsen


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
1949 28 House 62 24 D 85 50
1950 29 House 63 21 D 85 43
1951 30 House 76 21 D 90 54
1952 31 House 55 30 D 76 25
1953 32 House 50 37 R 48 89 27
1954 33 House 33 23 R 26 29 54 50
1971 50 Senate 73 18 57 36 R 61 37 89 43 37
1972 51 Senate 56 34 55 38 R 57 35 90 37 73
1973 52 Senate 57 36 59 35 R 44 47 89 58 32
1974 53 Senate 43 38 48 32 R 53 28 74 38* 43
1975 54 Senate 58 27 49 36 R 57 25 83 44 34
1976 55 Senate 64 15 37 42 R 32 30 75 19 50
1977 56 Senate 78 15 41 49 D 63 32 89 33 33
1978 57 Senate 70 22 51 39 D 60 28 92 35 38
1979 58 Senate 63 26 63 29 D 66 27 93 29 26
1980 59 Senate 56 27 57 26 D 73 19 87 41 38
1981 60 Senate 83 11 55 42 R 70 24 94 25 53
1982 61 Senate 88 10 54 41 R 61 33 95 42 72
1983 62 Senate 64 34 63 31 R 51 45 92 42 25
1984 63 Senate 53 17 46 28 R 52 34 80 64 25
1985 64 Senate 75 23 54 40 R 50 46 94 35 58
1986 65 Senate 87 9 46 50 R 60 37 96 47 50
1987 66 Senate 69 31 78 19 R 44 50 97 60 31
1988 67 Senate 78 11 55 20 R 61 27 74 47 42
1989 68 Senate 79 21 71 26 R 69 28 98 45 32
1990 69 Senate 89 11 75 23 R 52 47 98 44 32
1991 70 Senate 78 23 74 24 R 56 42 97 50 30
1992 71 Senate 76 24 59 30 R 45 52 92 80 24
Lifetime conservative rating:   38%


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.