RightDataUSA


Dennis Chavez

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 8, 1888 in Los Chavez, NM
Died: November 18, 1962 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • Georgetown University Law School, 1920

Career:

  • U.S. Senate clerk, 1917-1920
  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • NM House, 1923-1924
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on May 11, 1935 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Bronson Cutting


Election Results for Dennis Chavez


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1936 48 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 Special 1 94,585 55.7%
1940 52 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 49,937 51.3%
1940 52 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 103,194 55.9%
1946 58 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 37,443 57.7%
1946 58 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 68,650 51.5%
1952 64 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 57,645 68.2%
1952 64 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 122,543 51.1%
1958 70 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 68,689 65.7%
1958 70 NM D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 127,496 62.7%


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



Ideology Data for Dennis Chavez


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
1945 57 Senate 71 12 D 82
1946 58 Senate 55 6 D 45
1947 59 Senate 74 9 D 84 80
1948 60 Senate 51 13 D 67 67
1949 61 Senate 64 9 D 73 86
1950 62 Senate 71 14 D 67 87
1951 63 Senate 54 14 D 55 44
1952 64 Senate 56 3 D 56 92
1953 65 Senate 58 10 R 44 58 50
1954 66 Senate 67 9 R 22 42 64 73
1955 67 Senate 46 19 R 38 23 64 57
1956 68 Senate 77 4 R 17 55 75 79
1957 69 Senate 61 8 R 28 35 65 60
1958 70 Senate 48 7 R 29 33 57 67
1959 71 Senate 30 35 50 15 R 28 33 70 45
1960 72 Senate 35 26 45 16 R 35 28 62 55
1961 73 Senate 2 12 11 0 D 11 1 10 80 0
1962 74 Senate 26 15 29 11 D 31 10 45 55 27
Lifetime conservative rating:   15%


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.