RightDataUSA


Jim DeMint

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 2, 1951 in Greenville, SC

Education:

  • University of Tennessee, B.S., 1973
  • Clemson University, M.B.A., 1981

Career:

  • Sales/account rep., 1973-1981
  • VP of advertising company, 1981-1984
  • President of marketing company


Election Results for Jim DeMint


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1998 46 SC R U.S. House District 04 Primary 2 9,300 23.3%
1998 46 SC R U.S. House District 04 Primary Runoff 1 18,445 52.9%
1998 46 SC R U.S. House District 04 General 1 105,264 57.7%
2000 48 SC R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 41,851 77.3%
2000 48 SC R U.S. House District 04 General 1 150,436 79.6%
2002 50 SC R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 39,142 61.6%
2002 50 SC R U.S. House District 04 General 1 122,422 69.0%
2004 52 SC R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 2 77,567 26.3%
2004 52 SC R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary Runoff 1 154,644 59.2%
2004 52 SC R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 857,167 53.7%
2010 58 SC R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 342,464 83.0%
2010 58 SC R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 810,771 61.5%


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



Ideology Data for Jim DeMint


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
1999 47 House 97 2 D 15 83 99 0 92
2000 48 House 93 2 D 24 72 94 0 100
2001 49 House 99 1 R 95 5 99 0 100
2002 50 House 97 3 R 86 14 99 0 100
2003 51 House 91 2 R 85 11 90 21 96
2004 52 House 55 1 R 64 9 57 0 100
2005 53 Senate 95 3 R 93 7 98 5 96
2006 54 Senate 97 3 R 89 10 99 0 100
2007 55 Senate 97 2 R 91 9 98 0 100
2008 56 Senate 97 0 R 76 19 95 0 100
2009 57 Senate 97 2 D 29 68 99 5 100
2010 58 Senate 94 1 D 27 63 94 6 100
2011 59 Senate 94 4 D 38 54 94 10 100
2012 60 Senate 77 5 D 13 66 83 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   99%


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.