RightDataUSA


Barry Goldwater

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 1, 1909 in Phoenix, AZ
Died: May 29, 1998 in Paradise Valley, AZ

Education:

  • Attended University of Arizona, 1928

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Air Corps, 1941-1945
  • AZ National Guard (organizer), 1945-1952
  • U.S. Air Force Reserve, 1959-1967

Career:

  • Mercantile buninessman
  • Advisor on Indian Affairs, U.S. Interior Department, 1948-1950

Elected Office:

  • Phoenix city council, 1949-1952
  • Republican party candidate for President, 1964

Other notes:

  • Father of Barry Goldwater, Jr.


Election Results for Barry Goldwater


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 43 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 33,460 91.0%
1952 43 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 132,063 51.3%
1958 49 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 164,593 56.1%
1968 59 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 94,901 100.0%
1968 59 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 274,607 57.2%
1974 65 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 139,126 100.0%
1974 65 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 320,396 58.3%
1980 71 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 140,765 100.0%
1980 71 AZ R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 432,371 49.5%


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



Ideology Data for Barry Goldwater


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
1953 44 Senate 81 17 R 66 85 7
1954 45 Senate 89 6 R 68 10 81 15
1955 46 Senate 85 12 R 67 23 87 0
1956 47 Senate 80 10 R 65 23 87 7
1957 48 Senate 55 13 R 56 21 81 0
1958 49 Senate 77 5 R 57 19 80 8
1959 50 Senate 72 2 74 10 R 59 14 72 0
1960 51 Senate 63 4 58 13 R 42 24 69 0
1961 52 Senate 57 3 72 1 D 15 52 69 0 92
1962 53 Senate 68 3 60 1 D 21 50 63 0 92
1963 54 Senate 81 0 81 0 D 14 55 71 0 100
1964 55 Senate 37 2 25 1 D 10 23 28 0 91
1969 60 Senate 45 1 47 2 R 39 19 47 0 82
1970 61 Senate 45 7 40 7 R 29 9 43 0 88
1971 62 Senate 63 3 58 3 R 55 10 53 6 100
1972 63 Senate 53 2 47 3 R 59 9 44 7 100
1973 64 Senate 60 1 54 2 R 45 9 56 7 100
1974 65 Senate 75 2 71 10 R 61 27 75 5 92
1975 66 Senate 80 1 73 2 R 61 10 67 6* 100
1976 67 Senate 40 2 44 2 R 72 2 46 0 92
1977 68 Senate 71 3 64 5 D 33 41 66 0 90
1978 69 Senate 75 8 74 4 D 14 62 73 11 89
1979 70 Senate 76 4 69 7 D 24 51 77 6 88
1980 71 Senate 62 4 45 11 D 32 41 58 0 100
1981 72 Senate 70 3 55 5 R 63 11 62 0 92
1982 73 Senate 62 14 63 11 R 65 14 71 11 94
1983 74 Senate 61 7 56 9 R 62 6 61 12 71
1984 75 Senate 77 4 84 4 R 81 6 82 6 86
1985 76 Senate 72 8 68 11 R 72 14 77 11 88
1986 77 Senate 68 4 59 9 R 70 8 67 13 93
Lifetime conservative rating:   92%


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.