RightDataUSA


Mendel Davis

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 23, 1942 in North Charleston, SC
Died: May 13, 2007 in Charleston, SC

Education:

  • College of Charleston, B.A., 1966
  • University of South Carolina, J.D., 1970

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant to SC Rep. Mendel Rivers for 10 years


Election Results for Mendel Davis


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1971 28 SC D U.S. House District 01 Special 1 37,821 48.3%
1972 29 SC D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 37,493 72.3%
1972 29 SC D U.S. House District 01 General 1 61,625 54.5%
1974 31 SC D U.S. House District 01 General 1 63,111 72.7%
1976 33 SC D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 37,811 84.5%
1976 33 SC D U.S. House District 01 General 1 89,891 68.9%
1978 35 SC D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 48,541 86.4%
1978 35 SC D U.S. House District 01 General 1 65,835 60.6%
1986 43 SC D U.S. House District 01 Primary 2 17,417 41.2%
1986 43 SC D U.S. House District 01 Primary Runoff 2 11,687 38.2%


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



Ideology Data for Mendel Davis


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
1971 28 House 72 19 42 46 R 65 29 86 23 83
1972 29 House 44 15 30 26 R 27 24 59 18 75
1973 30 House 68 23 50 41 R 41 54 89 33 71
1974 31 House 67 25 51 42 R 58 32 91 30* 43
1975 32 House 55 39 66 29 R 33 63 93 26* 51
1976 33 House 70 29 57 43 R 39 61 96 35 44
1977 34 House 64 27 52 40 D 54 37 93 30 58
1978 35 House 61 30 49 43 D 42 54 91 45 35
1979 36 House 36 32 56 17 D 45 26 67 60 26
1980 37 House 29 24 33 12 D 36 19 47 54 17
Lifetime conservative rating:   49%


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.