RightDataUSA


Sonny Callahan

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 11, 1932 in Mobile, AL
Died: June 25, 2021

Education:

  • McGill Institute High School (Mobile, AL), 1950
  • Attended University of Alabama, 1959-1960

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1952-1954

Career:

  • Businessman, 1955-1985

Elected Office:

  • AL House, 1971-1979
  • AL Senate, 1979-1983
  • Candidate for AL Lt. Governor, 1982

Other notes:

  • Changed party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 1982


Election Results for Sonny Callahan


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1982 49 AL D Lt. Governor Primary 2 342,176 40.1%
1984 51 AL R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 17,118 60.5%
1984 51 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 102,479 51.0%
1986 53 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 96,469 99.9%
1988 55 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 115,173 59.3%
1990 57 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 82,185 99.6%
1992 59 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 128,874 60.2%
1994 61 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 103,431 67.3%
1996 63 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 132,206 64.4%
1998 65 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 112,872 99.4%
2000 67 AL R U.S. House District 01 General 1 151,188 91.3%


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



Ideology Data for Sonny Callahan


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
1985 52 House 96 4 82 16 R 74 26 99 0 84
1986 53 House 98 0 75 21 R 73 21 96 0 95
1987 54 House 93 5 79 16 R 68 32 96 4 78
1988 55 House 100 0 79 17 R 63 37 96 10 96
1989 56 House 100 0 73 23 R 73 21 96 0 93
1990 57 House 96 0 73 20 R 63 32 94 6 87
1991 58 House 70 3 72 15 R 65 25 88 0 100
1992 59 House 96 0 83 12 R 82 16 96 5 96
1993 60 House 93 0 92 5 D 28 69 96 0 96
1994 61 House 94 0 82 11 D 38 55 94 5 100
1995 62 House 97 1 93 4 D 20 78 97 5 88
1996 63 House 100 0 91 5 D 37 59 97 0 100
1997 64 House 91 5 90 7 D 27 72 97 5 88
1998 65 House 98 2 89 6 D 23 72 95 0 96
1999 66 House 92 7 D 20 72 97 10 92
2000 67 House 84 10 D 30 66 93 0 70
2001 68 House 90 1 R 93 0 92 0 91
2002 69 House 81 4 R 61 11 81 0 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   91%


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.