RightDataUSA


Charlie Dent

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 24, 1960 in Allentown, PA

Education:

  • Penn State University, B.A., 1982
  • Lehigh University, M.P.A., 1993

Career:

  • Staff, Rep. Don Ritter
  • College admnistrator
  • Sales rep
  • Hotel clerk

Elected Office:

  • PA House, 1991-1998
  • PA Senate, 1999-2004


Election Results for Charlie Dent


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2004 44 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 25,376 51.5%
2004 44 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 170,634 58.6%
2006 46 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 18,858 100.0%
2006 46 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 106,153 53.6%
2008 48 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 27,875 100.0%
2008 48 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 181,433 58.6%
2010 50 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 31,618 82.9%
2010 50 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 109,534 53.5%
2012 52 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 38,651 100.0%
2012 52 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 168,960 56.8%
2014 54 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 20,700 100.0%
2014 54 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 128,285 100.0%
2016 56 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 75,821 100.0%
2016 56 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 190,618 58.4%


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



Ideology Data for Charlie Dent


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
2005 45 House 89 11 R 76 24 99 21 76
2006 46 House 81 19 R 82 18 100 30 72
2007 47 House 76 24 R 45 54 99 45 52
2008 48 House 80 19 R 47 51 99 55 56
2009 49 House 72 25 D 46 54 100 20 72
2010 50 House 76 22 D 44 56 98 25 61
2011 51 House 85 15 D 31 69 99 10 52
2012 52 House 83 17 D 19 81 100 0 80
2013 53 House 90 10 D 22 78 100 10 56
2014 54 House 88 11 D 12 88 99 0 54
2015 55 House 85 15 D 24 76 100 5 29
2016 56 House 88 12 D 6 94 99 0 36
2017 57 House 89 10 R 92 6 98 10 56
2018 58 House 38 0 R 37 0 35 0 86
Lifetime conservative rating:   58%


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.