RightDataUSA


William Clay

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 30, 1931 in St. Louis, MO

Education:

  • St. Louis University, B.S., 1953

Career:

  • Real estate/insurance businessman
  • Labor union representative, 1961-1964, 1966-1967

Elected Office:

  • St. Louis alderman, 1959-1964

Other notes:

  • Father of Lacy Clay


Election Results for William Clay


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 37 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 23,758 47.6%
1968 37 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 79,295 64.1%
1970 39 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 33,173 100.0%
1970 39 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 58,082 90.5%
1972 41 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 44,081 76.1%
1972 41 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 95,098 64.0%
1974 43 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 39,141 68.3%
1974 43 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 61,933 68.3%
1976 45 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 38,735 60.7%
1976 45 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 87,310 65.5%
1978 47 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 29,780 62.2%
1978 47 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 65,950 66.6%
1980 49 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 37,611 72.3%
1980 49 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 91,272 70.2%
1982 51 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 73,827 60.8%
1982 51 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 102,656 66.1%
1984 53 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 147,436 68.3%
1986 55 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 46,266 79.9%
1986 55 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 91,044 66.1%
1988 57 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 41,267 100.0%
1988 57 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 140,751 71.6%
1990 59 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 27,384 100.0%
1990 59 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 62,550 60.9%
1992 61 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 57,242 68.2%
1992 61 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 158,693 68.1%
1994 63 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 34,656 53.2%
1994 63 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 97,061 63.4%
1996 65 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 44,971 78.2%
1996 65 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 131,659 70.2%
1998 67 MO D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 21,666 100.0%
1998 67 MO D U.S. House District 01 General 1 90,840 72.6%


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



Ideology Data for William Clay


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 38 House 4 80 65 5 R 28 38 77 100 20
1970 39 House 0 70 50 8 R 31 25 53 100 8
1971 40 House 0 61 62 2 R 12 51 55 100 22
1972 41 House 0 59 45 1 R 22 30 46 100 0
1973 42 House 3 79 79 4 R 26 66 81 100 4
1974 43 House 1 68 68 4 R 32 45 70 61* 6
1975 44 House 2 86 89 3 R 34 62 90 100* 3
1976 45 House 5 62 62 3 R 12 47 70 95 6
1977 46 House 3 73 75 2 D 53 13 76 89 3
1978 47 House 4 82 84 4 D 70 13 83 95 0
1979 48 House 3 88 87 3 D 70 17 84 100 3
1980 49 House 3 78 74 8 D 62 21 78 100 6
1981 50 House 4 89 86 2 R 22 68 76 100 0
1982 51 House 3 67 74 5 R 19 43 69 94 11
1983 52 House 2 85 83 2 R 9 80 83 95 0
1984 53 House 2 92 83 3 R 19 65 84 100 5
1985 54 House 4 91 73 18 R 15 80 90 100 6
1986 55 House 2 74 71 11 R 8 78 83 100 0
1987 56 House 2 91 72 12 R 11 74 84 96 0
1988 57 House 0 82 68 12 R 12 67 79 100 0
1989 58 House 7 88 71 21 R 28 62 91 100 0
1990 59 House 7 89 75 12 R 16 80 89 100 4
1991 60 House 3 86 80 10 R 24 69 90 100 0
1992 61 House 10 77 80 9 R 9 86 90 95 0
1993 62 House 16 84 83 10 D 78 19 93 100 0
1994 63 House 8 83 74 12 D 60 24 86 94 14
1995 64 House 6 92 91 2 D 85 8 92 100 4
1996 65 House 12 84 84 4 D 66 20 89 100 6
1997 66 House 16 75 86 4 D 76 19 90 100 9
1998 67 House 10 76 83 2 D 73 10 87 100 5
1999 68 House 88 3 D 74 19 90 100 0
2000 69 House 75 2 D 78 14 75 100 5
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.