RightDataUSA


Dan Coats

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 16, 1943 in Jackson, MI

Education:

  • Wheaton College, B.A., 1965
  • Indiana University, J.D., 1971

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1966-1968

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant insurance company VP, 1972-1976
  • District representative for Rep. Dan Quayle, 1976-1980

Elected Office:

  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on January 3, 1989 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Dan Quayle


Election Results for Dan Coats


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1980 37 IN R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 35,138 58.1%
1980 37 IN R U.S. House District 04 General 1 120,055 60.5%
1982 39 IN R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 44,861 100.0%
1982 39 IN R U.S. House District 04 General 1 110,155 64.3%
1984 41 IN R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 40,757 100.0%
1984 41 IN R U.S. House District 04 General 1 129,674 60.8%
1986 43 IN R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 35,545 100.0%
1986 43 IN R U.S. House District 04 General 1 99,865 69.6%
1988 45 IN R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 41,783 100.0%
1988 45 IN R U.S. House District 04 General 1 132,843 62.1%
1990 47 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 1 348,133 100.0%
1990 47 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 1 806,048 53.6%
1992 49 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 389,119 100.0%
1992 49 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,267,972 57.3%
2010 67 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 217,225 39.5%
2010 67 IN R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 952,116 54.6%


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



Ideology Data for Dan Coats


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
1981 38 House 91 9 86 14 R 74 26 99 10 92
1982 39 House 82 18 84 13 R 71 29 98 30 73
1983 40 House 84 16 88 12 R 78 21 97 10 86
1984 41 House 90 10 92 8 R 67 30 99 5 91
1985 42 House 80 20 81 17 R 74 26 98 20 84
1986 43 House 84 16 84 15 R 70 29 98 10 82
1987 44 House 86 12 83 16 R 64 36 99 8 91
1988 45 House 84 11 77 20 R 59 38 98 11 92
1989 46 Senate 92 8 92 8 R 81 19 99 10 84
1990 47 Senate 92 8 87 11 R 77 18 98 0 96
1991 48 Senate 85 15 91 9 R 85 15 99 5 100
1992 49 Senate 87 13 92 8 R 75 22 99 10 92
1993 50 Senate 80 20 85 12 D 29 70 98 20 88
1994 51 Senate 78 19 88 11 D 42 58 99 5 92
1995 52 Senate 95 5 97 2 D 23 76 99 0 96
1996 53 Senate 84 11 93 4 D 29 68 97 10 100
1997 54 Senate 78 20 83 12 D 54 41 96 11 91
1998 55 Senate 75 25 87 10 D 39 56 97 5 84
2011 68 Senate 91 8 D 56 42 99 10 90
2012 69 Senate 89 11 D 53 46 99 5 80
2013 70 Senate 93 6 D 42 54 97 10 83
2014 71 Senate 84 13 D 63 35 98 10 76
2015 72 Senate 93 6 D 51 42 98 0 75
2016 73 Senate 87 9 D 55 42 95 5 83
Lifetime conservative rating:   87%


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.