RightDataUSA


Sam Ervin

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 27, 1896 in Morganton, NC
Died: April 23, 1985 in Winston-Salem, NC

Education:

  • University of North Carolina, 1917
  • Harvard University Law School, 1922

Military Service:

  • 1917-1919 (served in France)

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Judge, 1935-1943
  • NC Supreme Court justice, 1948-1954

Elected Office:

  • NC House, 1923, 1925, 1931
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on June 5, 1954 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Clyde Hoey

Other notes:

  • Brother of Joe Ervin


Election Results for Sam Ervin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1946 49 NC D U.S. House District 10 Special 1 2,302 99.4%
1954 57 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 1 410,574 100.0%
1956 59 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 360,967 84.6%
1956 59 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 731,353 67.8%
1962 65 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 491,520 60.4%
1968 71 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 499,392 78.2%
1968 71 NC D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 870,406 60.6%


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



Ideology Data for Sam Ervin


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
1946 49 House 38 34 D 79
1954 57 Senate 44 21 R 36 43 74 29
1955 58 Senate 81 19 R 60 37 97 40
1956 59 Senate 68 16 R 25 65 88 46
1957 60 Senate 87 3 R 37 39 79 20
1958 61 Senate 70 24 R 49 47 96 25
1959 62 Senate 82 7 52 42 R 46 50 97 23
1960 63 Senate 87 7 51 42 R 44 51 91 8
1961 64 Senate 92 5 47 44 D 44 49 93 30 71
1962 65 Senate 91 6 51 38 D 55 35 91 9 100
1963 66 Senate 86 7 56 37 D 37 56 89 18 88
1964 67 Senate 96 4 49 43 D 46 37 92 5 62
1965 68 Senate 93 5 30 62 D 43 48 89 0 87
1966 69 Senate 94 4 25 62 D 46 47 93 5 68
1967 70 Senate 75 4 37 41 D 48 35 84 15 85
1968 71 Senate 74 9 38 40 D 34 51 78 0 79
1969 72 Senate 93 4 37 54 R 46 46 90 6 67
1970 73 Senate 83 9 36 59 R 62 35 93 10 86
1971 74 Senate 83 8 39 49 R 62 32 89 30 80
1972 75 Senate 82 7 29 60 R 70 22 92 10 100
1973 76 Senate 74 11 38 49 R 53 34 86 12 67
1974 77 Senate 83 7 26 58 R 52 36 87 10* 69
Lifetime conservative rating:   78%


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.