RightDataUSA


Joe Biden

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 20, 1942 in Scranton, PA

Education:

  • University of Delaware, 1965
  • Syracuse University Law School, 1968

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • New Castle County council, 1970-1972
  • Vice-President of the United States, 2009-2017
  • President of the United States, 2021-


Election Results for Joe Biden


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 29 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 116,006 50.3%
1978 35 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 93,930 58.0%
1984 41 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 147,831 60.1%
1990 47 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 112,918 62.7%
1996 53 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 165,465 60.0%
2002 59 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 135,253 58.2%
2008 65 DE D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 257,539 64.7%


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



Ideology Data for Joe Biden


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
1973 30 Senate 9 81 75 10 R 30 49 87 94 8
1974 31 Senate 19 75 73 18 R 30 65 91 85 6
1975 32 Senate 14 74 77 13 R 27 56 86 78* 19
1976 33 Senate 10 68 71 9 R 28 49 83 83 4
1977 34 Senate 13 76 72 14 D 77 15 86 78 23
1978 35 Senate 28 68 67 22 D 71 17 87 56 30
1979 36 Senate 14 68 68 14 D 66 12 81 56 23
1980 37 Senate 23 67 70 15 D 72 9 82 75 29
1981 38 Senate 24 74 84 12 R 44 54 93 80 20
1982 39 Senate 28 67 79 17 R 34 61 94 84 28
1983 40 Senate 23 68 82 12 R 38 60 94 85 8
1984 41 Senate 28 72 79 21 R 34 65 99 84 18
1985 42 Senate 18 75 77 16 R 31 64 92 79 11
1986 43 Senate 25 71 83 12 R 27 67 94 84 5
1987 44 Senate 6 56 60 6 R 27 41 62 93 0
1988 45 Senate 3 5 13 1 R 13 3 18 75 0
1989 46 Senate 26 68 81 18 R 50 48 98 95 16
1990 47 Senate 16 84 83 16 R 33 67 98 83 17
1991 48 Senate 10 85 88 8 R 33 65 96 90 5
1992 49 Senate 18 79 90 8 R 28 70 97 100 0
1993 50 Senate 32 66 91 8 D 94 3 97 80 21
1994 51 Senate 31 69 86 8 D 82 10 94 89 0
1995 52 Senate 30 60 84 13 D 81 15 96 95 17
1996 53 Senate 42 58 79 20 D 92 8 99 80 20
1997 54 Senate 48 48 81 18 D 76 14 96 70 17
1998 55 Senate 50 50 85 13 D 83 8 96 85 4
1999 56 Senate 93 7 91 6 D 89 11 96 95 4
2000 57 Senate 88 12 85 12 D 91 9 94 80 17
2001 58 Senate 92 6 R 62 35 98 100 12
2002 59 Senate 90 9 R 76 20 97 84 10
2003 60 Senate 86 9 R 38 45 92 79 26
2004 61 Senate 91 4 R 71 24 92 100 0
2005 62 Senate 86 10 R 27 62 92 100 8
2006 63 Senate 86 8 R 41 34 88 100 4
2007 64 Senate 66 2 R 22 42 61 100 0
2008 65 Senate 86 2 R 31 54 83 100 0
2009 66 Senate 1 0 D 0 0 1 0 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.