RightDataUSA


Gary Hart

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 28, 1936 in Ottawa, KS

Education:

  • Bethany Navarene College, 1958
  • Yale Divinity School, 1961, Law School, 1964

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Attorney for government agencies, 1964-1967

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for Democrat party nomination for President, 1984, 1988


Election Results for Gary Hart


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 37 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 81,161 39.9%
1974 37 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 471,691 57.2%
1980 43 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 105,730 100.0%
1980 43 CO D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 590,501 50.3%


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



Ideology Data for Gary Hart


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
1975 38 Senate 13 80 85 7 R 45 51 93 94* 11
1976 39 Senate 10 84 84 9 R 40 55 91 94 3
1977 40 Senate 19 73 80 14 D 74 25 94 95 6
1978 41 Senate 20 76 87 8 D 84 9 94 68 8
1979 42 Senate 23 71 79 18 D 79 17 96 58 26
1980 43 Senate 25 63 68 19 D 66 23 87 65 40
1981 44 Senate 13 83 84 10 R 35 57 92 95 14
1982 45 Senate 14 79 85 12 R 37 56 94 95 5
1983 46 Senate 9 52 61 13 R 31 46 63 100 0
1984 47 Senate 2 34 44 4 R 12 22 37 100 7
1985 48 Senate 3 95 91 6 R 21 77 97 100 0
1986 49 Senate 9 87 81 14 R 23 73 95 95 15
Lifetime conservative rating:   11%


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.