RightDataUSA


Harry Byrd, Jr.

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 20, 1914 in Winchester, VA
Died: July 30, 2013 in Winchester, VA

Military Service:

  • U.S. Naval Reserve, World War II

Elected Office:

  • VA Senate, 1948-1965
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on November 12, 1965 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Harry Byrd

Other notes:

  • Changed party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 1970


Election Results for Harry Byrd, Jr.


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 51 VA D U.S. Senate Class 1 Special Primary 1 221,221 50.9%
1966 51 VA D U.S. Senate Class 1 Special 1 389,028 53.3%
1970 55 VA I U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 506,633 53.5%
1976 61 VA I U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 890,778 57.2%


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



Ideology Data for Harry Byrd, Jr.


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
1966 51 Senate 94 3 27 63 D 42 48 91 5 74
1967 52 Senate 86 5 34 60 D 54 39 92 8 93
1968 53 Senate 80 16 31 61 D 43 55 95 0 83
1969 54 Senate 84 14 47 51 R 58 42 98 11 60
1970 55 Senate 81 9 31 56 R 62 31 88 25 76
1971 56 Senate 88 8 33 65 R 66 30 95 15 95
1972 57 Senate 92 7 30 68 R 83 17 98 20 100
1973 58 Senate 89 7 24 69 R 63 33 95 15 80
1974 59 Senate 93 6 24 75 R 65 34 98 10* 69
1975 60 Senate 93 6 25 73 R 72 24 98 0 89
1976 61 Senate 89 6 14 81 R 75 21 91 5 89
1977 62 Senate 97 2 17 81 D 58 40 98 5 81
1978 63 Senate 92 8 16 83 D 31 68 99 10 92
1979 64 Senate 88 7 22 74 D 36 57 95 0 76
1980 65 Senate 96 2 29 67 D 46 51 95 22 81
1981 66 Senate 89 9 26 70 R 79 21 96 10 86
1982 67 Senate 89 10 30 68 R 40 60 98 25 83
Lifetime conservative rating:   83%


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.