RightDataUSA


Shirley Chisholm

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 30, 1924 in Brooklyn, NY
Died: January 1, 2005 in Ormond Beach, FL

Education:

  • Brooklyn College, B.A., 1946
  • Columbia University, M.A., 1952

Career:

  • Nursery school teacher, 1946-1953
  • Director of child care center, 1953-1959
  • New York City Division of Day Care, 1959-1964

Elected Office:

  • NY Assembly, 1964-1968


Election Results for Shirley Chisholm


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 43 NY D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 5,680 45.7%
1968 43 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 34,885 66.5%
1970 45 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 31,500 81.8%
1972 47 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 57,821 87.9%
1974 49 NY D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 7,798 66.8%
1974 49 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 26,468 80.2%
1976 51 NY D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 10,602 53.3%
1976 51 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 43,203 87.0%
1978 53 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 25,697 87.8%
1980 55 NY D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 9,514 62.0%
1980 55 NY D U.S. House District 12 General 1 35,446 87.1%


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



Ideology Data for Shirley Chisholm


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
1969 44 House 11 67 51 16 R 21 47 64 100 14
1970 45 House 2 48 46 14 R 27 37 48 92 24
1971 46 House 3 80 69 8 R 21 70 72 100 20
1972 47 House 1 60 54 2 R 32 35 48 100 0
1973 48 House 4 80 78 7 R 23 64 76 100 11
1974 49 House 4 73 70 6 R 19 64 73 78* 0
1975 50 House 4 88 89 5 R 29 65 90 95* 0
1976 51 House 3 71 69 3 R 16 61 71 100 3
1977 52 House 2 89 87 2 D 68 19 83 95 3
1978 53 House 5 82 84 6 D 74 18 83 100 4
1979 54 House 5 81 77 5 D 68 18 77 100 8
1980 55 House 0 72 77 4 D 58 22 71 100 11
1981 56 House 3 69 70 2 R 28 54 66 94 9
1982 57 House 4 52 57 2 R 18 48 49 94 11
Lifetime conservative rating:   7%


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.