RightDataUSA


Tom Gettys

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 19, 1912 in Rock Hill, SC
Died: June 8, 2003 in Rock Hill, SC

Education:

  • Erskine College, A.B., 1933

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1946

Career:

  • School teacher/coach/principal, 1933-1941
  • Secretary to Rep. James Richards, 1942-1951
  • Rock Hill postmaster, 1951-1954
  • Lawyer


Election Results for Tom Gettys


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1956 44 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary 2 19,760 41.0%
1964 52 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 19,092 39.4%
1964 52 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary Runoff 1 16,861 52.2%
1964 52 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 44,859 66.7%
1966 54 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 41,550 99.2%
1968 56 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 53,158 72.8%
1968 56 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 72,805 74.7%
1970 58 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 43,742 65.9%
1972 60 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 66,343 60.9%


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



Ideology Data for Tom Gettys


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
1965 53 House 94 6 39 59 D 56 43 99 5 88
1966 54 House 78 3 33 46 D 40 33 77 0 73
1967 55 House 76 11 45 43 D 53 39 86 13 85
1968 56 House 61 2 32 38 D 49 24 68 11 58
1969 57 House 56 11 42 35 R 40 40 72 8 92
1970 58 House 66 0 42 33 R 55 28 74 7 73
1971 59 House 77 6 33 53 R 55 28 83 9 94
1972 60 House 70 12 30 52 R 57 24 82 0 89
1973 61 House 81 8 38 51 R 55 38 87 13 74
1974 62 House 74 11 39 50 R 58 26 86 4* 82
Lifetime conservative rating:   79%


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.