RightDataUSA


William Dawson

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 26, 1886 in Albany, GA
Died: November 9, 1970 in Chicago, IL

Education:

  • Fisk University, 1909
  • Graduated from Northwestern University Law School

Military Service:

  • Infantry, 1917-1919

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • Chicago alderman, 1933-1939



Election Results for William Dawson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1938 52 IL R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 4,577 30.7%
1938 52 IL R U.S. House District 01 General 2 26,396 46.6%
1942 56 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 14,628 69.9%
1942 56 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 26,280 52.8%
1944 58 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 42,713 62.0%
1946 60 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 19,539 100.0%
1946 60 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 38,040 56.8%
1948 62 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 29,963 90.3%
1948 62 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 98,690 67.0%
1950 64 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 38,026 100.0%
1950 64 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 69,056 61.6%
1952 66 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 34,573 100.0%
1952 66 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 95,899 73.5%
1954 68 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 29,879 100.0%
1954 68 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 71,472 75.3%
1956 70 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 32,827 100.0%
1956 70 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 66,704 64.4%
1958 72 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 31,706 100.0%
1958 72 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 60,778 72.2%
1960 74 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 41,343 100.0%
1960 74 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 75,938 77.8%
1962 76 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 45,075 79.2%
1962 76 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 98,305 74.1%
1964 78 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 46,259 58.4%
1964 78 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 150,953 84.9%
1966 80 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 41,063 59.7%
1966 80 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 91,119 72.6%
1968 82 IL D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 30,252 58.3%
1968 82 IL D U.S. House District 01 General 1 119,207 84.6%


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




Ideology Data for William Dawson


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
1943 57 House 54 8 D 59
1944 58 House 60 7 D 65
1945 59 House 44 0 D 43
1946 60 House 49 0 D 33
1947 61 House 66 5 D 36 100
1948 62 House 53 0 D 41 100
1949 63 House 91 3 D 87 100
1950 64 House 63 4 D 55 92
1951 65 House 72 1 D 65 100
1952 66 House 73 5 D 57 100
1953 67 House 58 24 R 52 63 100
1954 68 House 73 0 R 32 42 59 100
1955 69 House 58 0 R 32 24 64 100
1956 70 House 72 3 R 56 32 78 100
1957 71 House 49 2 R 47 4 44 89
1958 72 House 86 5 R 66 24 83 100
1959 73 House 0 100 94 0 R 35 54 90 100
1960 74 House 5 79 69 10 R 44 44 78 100
1961 75 House 9 65 84 0 D 77 8 81 100 0
1962 76 House 6 81 81 2 D 75 2 78 100 0
1963 77 House 13 67 86 0 D 82 3 81 90 14
1964 78 House 0 83 69 2 D 73 4 71 100 0
1965 79 House 0 88 87 0 D 80 2 82 88 0
1966 80 House 0 84 79 0 D 73 2 75 94 0
1967 81 House 6 59 71 1 D 66 6 69 82 9
1968 82 House 2 65 65 1 D 61 0 62 100 0
1969 83 House 7 27 29 2 R 15 6 29 63 29
1970 84 House 10 1 R 0 9 6 100 0
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.