RightDataUSA


Robert Griffin

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 6, 1923 in Detroit, MI
Died: April 16, 2015 in Traverse City, MI

Education:

  • Central Michigan College, 1947
  • University of Michigan Law School, 1950

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1943-1946

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on May 11, 1966 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Pat McNamara


Election Results for Robert Griffin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1956 32 MI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 14,476 52.3%
1956 32 MI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 68,166 56.0%
1958 34 MI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 16,628 100.0%
1958 34 MI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 56,780 56.7%
1960 36 MI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 28,108 100.0%
1960 36 MI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 77,541 59.6%
1962 38 MI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 25,843 100.0%
1962 38 MI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 66,645 59.4%
1964 40 MI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 45,184 100.0%
1964 40 MI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 95,376 57.4%
1966 42 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 387,892 100.0%
1966 42 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,363,530 55.9%
1972 48 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 520,177 100.0%
1972 48 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,781,065 52.3%
1978 54 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 322,530 78.3%
1978 54 MI R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 1,362,165 47.9%


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



Ideology Data for Robert Griffin


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
1957 33 House 68 22 R 75 17 91 78
1958 34 House 73 27 R 80 20 99 33
1959 35 House 91 9 87 4 R 87 9 92 33
1960 36 House 58 42 69 31 R 86 12 97 33
1961 37 House 78 9 69 17 D 45 46 86 10 45
1962 38 House 69 25 79 16 D 55 38 92 25 60
1963 39 House 47 27 64 19 D 35 46 77 8 71
1964 40 House 75 25 71 16 D 42 52 90 8 75
1965 41 House 57 22 60 21 D 47 45 85 17 81
1966 42 House 11 2 D 9 5 15 0 67
1966 42 Senate 45 26 21 42 D 35 24 64 29 63
1967 43 Senate 45 50 58 32 D 60 27 87 33 47
1968 44 Senate 44 37 58 23 D 64 20 80 50 47
1969 45 Senate 67 23 71 19 R 74 13 90 29 64
1970 46 Senate 64 17 70 16 R 79 13 88 35 77
1971 47 Senate 65 21 73 18 R 85 9 87 35 65
1972 48 Senate 61 12 66 8 R 83 7 71 24 60
1973 49 Senate 80 5 85 4 R 77 15 86 11 80
1974 50 Senate 80 14 80 15 R 66 25 93 24 73
1975 51 Senate 80 10 74 16 R 86 8 88 6* 69
1976 52 Senate 76 11 72 14 R 81 8 83 11 74
1977 53 Senate 60 8 57 10 D 51 27 66 6 83
1978 54 Senate 58 18 65 17 D 30 46 75 11 84
Lifetime conservative rating:   70%


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.