RightDataUSA


Paul Douglas

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 26, 1882 in Salem, MA
Died: September 24, 1976 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • Bowdoin College, 1913
  • Columbia University, 1915

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps, 1942-1945

Career:

  • Economist
  • College professor, 1916-1949
  • President's Committee on Urban Affairs, 1967-1968

Elected Office:

  • Chicago city council, 1939-1942

Other notes:

  • Husband of Emily Taft Douglas


Election Results for Paul Douglas


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1942 60 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 284,210 31.4%
1948 66 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 597,717 100.0%
1948 66 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,147,754 55.1%
1954 72 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 587,084 100.0%
1954 72 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,804,338 53.6%
1960 78 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 916,951 100.0%
1960 78 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,530,943 54.6%
1966 84 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 840,936 100.0%
1966 84 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 1,678,147 43.9%


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



Ideology Data for Paul Douglas


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
1949 67 Senate 75 25 D 98 93
1950 68 Senate 68 27 D 92 88
1951 69 Senate 55 40 D 94 92
1952 70 Senate 63 36 D 95 79
1953 71 Senate 73 27 R 60 98 93
1954 72 Senate 84 14 R 35 49 82 100
1955 73 Senate 92 8 R 63 35 99 90
1956 74 Senate 81 16 R 49 45 95 100
1957 75 Senate 63 37 R 70 26 93 100
1958 76 Senate 90 9 R 46 54 100 100
1959 77 Senate 7 82 78 16 R 40 55 93 100
1960 78 Senate 2 96 71 16 R 49 45 90 100
1961 79 Senate 6 92 80 20 D 86 11 99 100 14
1962 80 Senate 15 68 70 20 D 73 17 91 92 6
1963 81 Senate 16 72 59 27 D 71 17 90 94 0
1964 82 Senate 6 94 78 22 D 82 18 99 100 13
1965 83 Senate 5 92 85 10 D 77 20 97 100 0
1966 84 Senate 4 79 64 11 D 62 9 70 89 15
Lifetime conservative rating:   9%


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.