RightDataUSA


Mike Gravel

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 13, 1930 in Springfield, MA
Died: June 26, 2021 in Seaside, CA

Education:

  • Columbia University, 1956

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps, 1951-1954

Career:

  • Author
  • Real estate developer

Elected Office:

  • AK House, 1962-1966 (Speaker, 1965-1966)


Election Results for Mike Gravel


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 36 AK D U.S. House At-Large District Primary 2 15,404 47.5%
1968 38 AK D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 17,971 52.9%
1968 38 AK D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 36,527 45.1%
1974 44 AK D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 22,834 54.3%
1974 44 AK D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 54,361 58.3%
1980 50 AK D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 2 31,504 43.5%


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



Ideology Data for Mike Gravel


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
1969 39 Senate 23 54 66 13 R 49 26 76 76 18
1970 40 Senate 4 50 49 6 R 27 32 49 100 11
1971 41 Senate 7 77 76 7 R 17 56 77 85 12
1972 42 Senate 5 61 60 5 R 26 50 61 94 0
1973 43 Senate 14 58 58 11 R 26 51 70 78 5
1974 44 Senate 15 38 43 16 R 33 30 57 64 33
1975 45 Senate 18 48 51 22 R 31 39 75 78* 23
1976 46 Senate 31 42 56 20 R 34 40 81 75 10
1977 47 Senate 52 35 50 38 D 65 16 79 63 16
1978 48 Senate 23 61 70 13 D 67 13 81 70 6
1979 49 Senate 26 51 54 19 D 53 23 73 69 38
1980 50 Senate 6 39 45 2 D 23 4 45 88 13
Lifetime conservative rating:   16%


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.