RightDataUSA


Dave Durenberger

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 19, 1934 in St. Cloud, MN
Died: January 31, 2023 in St. Paul, MN

Education:

  • St. John's University, B.A., 1955
  • University of Minnesota, J.D., 1959

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1956-1963

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Executive secretary to MN Governor, 1967-1971
  • Corporate manager, 1971-1978

Other notes:

  • Denounced by the Senate for "unethical conduct", 1990


Election Results for Dave Durenberger


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 43 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 Special Primary 1 139,187 67.3%
1978 43 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 Special 1 957,908 61.4%
1982 47 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 287,651 93.4%
1982 47 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 949,207 52.6%
1988 53 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 112,413 93.5%
1988 53 MN IR U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,176,210 56.2%


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



Ideology Data for Dave Durenberger


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
1979 44 Senate 33 59 50 43 D 68 30 94 56 44
1980 45 Senate 42 49 54 38 D 54 42 93 47 45
1981 46 Senate 59 33 68 25 R 73 24 93 42 47
1982 47 Senate 39 48 45 41 R 60 28 88 74 26
1983 48 Senate 57 36 60 28 R 75 19 90 42 38
1984 49 Senate 70 21 68 25 R 71 23 89 59 55
1985 50 Senate 62 25 59 34 R 70 21 82 32 48
1986 51 Senate 66 34 65 32 R 64 33 97 40 43
1987 52 Senate 47 50 54 43 R 51 44 94 58 28
1988 53 Senate 32 59 43 48 R 57 38 88 63 25
1989 54 Senate 63 37 56 42 R 77 18 97 40 33
1990 55 Senate 76 19 55 40 R 62 35 95 47 45
1991 56 Senate 65 35 68 30 R 83 17 98 45 48
1992 57 Senate 63 37 56 41 R 63 33 96 26 40
1993 58 Senate 54 44 58 37 D 48 46 96 75 38
1994 59 Senate 59 41 55 37 D 55 37 91 56 54
Lifetime conservative rating:   41%


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.