RightDataUSA


Thomas Downing

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 1, 1919 in Newport News, VA
Died: October 23, 2001 in Newport News, VA

Education:

  • Virginia Military Institute, 1940
  • University of Virginia, 1948

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1942-1946

Career:

  • Lawyer


Election Results for Thomas Downing


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1958 39 VA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 19,615 69.7%
1958 39 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 31,765 99.9%
1960 41 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 53,768 82.4%
1962 43 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 21,664 99.7%
1964 45 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 72,819 78.7%
1966 47 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 51,016 99.8%
1968 49 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 96,265 72.9%
1970 51 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 71,465 99.9%
1972 53 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 100,901 78.1%
1974 55 VA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 58,338 99.8%


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



Ideology Data for Thomas Downing


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
1959 40 House 100 0 54 27 R 35 52 87 11
1960 41 House 95 5 39 51 R 53 44 91 11
1961 42 House 91 4 55 43 D 65 31 95 20 53
1962 43 House 69 25 65 30 D 72 23 92 50 40
1963 44 House 73 13 65 29 D 70 27 94 25 75
1964 45 House 75 25 65 29 D 73 23 96 31 50
1965 46 House 86 10 34 58 D 54 41 95 11 76
1966 47 House 86 14 41 56 D 54 40 92 6 70
1967 48 House 78 19 53 42 D 63 29 88 27 86
1968 49 House 80 16 41 54 D 61 33 95 0 67
1969 50 House 91 2 29 62 R 55 36 92 0 79
1970 51 House 84 2 44 50 R 68 28 91 12 78
1971 52 House 90 5 32 63 R 77 21 91 9 100
1972 53 House 91 4 24 71 R 57 35 93 0 80
1973 54 House 80 8 31 57 R 51 40 87 9 76
1974 55 House 86 8 28 65 R 62 34 92 10 71
1975 56 House 87 8 25 68 R 60 37 93 5* 83
1976 57 House 78 7 27 57 R 57 33 87 6 67
Lifetime conservative rating:   72%


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.