RightDataUSA


John Heinz

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 23, 1938 in Pittsburgh, PA
Died: April 4, 1991 in Lower Merion Township, PA (airplane crash)

Education:

  • Yale University, 1960
  • Harvard University, 1963

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1963
  • U.S. Air Force Reserve, 1963-1969

Career:

  • Businessman with H.J. Heinz Co.


Election Results for John Heinz


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1971 32 PA R U.S. House District 18 Special 1 104,175 66.6%
1972 33 PA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 144,521 72.8%
1974 35 PA D U.S. House District 18 Primary 3 12,510 24.8%
1974 35 PA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 107,723 72.1%
1976 37 PA R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 358,715 37.7%
1976 37 PA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,381,891 52.4%
1982 43 PA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,136,418 59.3%
1988 49 PA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,901,715 66.5%


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



Ideology Data for John Heinz


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
1971 32 House 31 49 41 45 R 63 13 88 67 43
1972 33 House 38 57 47 48 R 59 41 94 67 10
1973 34 House 45 54 51 48 R 51 45 95 60 48
1974 35 House 34 60 39 56 R 64 32 95 57* 24
1975 36 House 39 52 44 48 R 49 42 89 68* 40
1976 37 House 20 34 14 38 R 18 41 44 46 18
1977 38 Senate 51 43 46 48 D 55 39 93 53 31
1978 39 Senate 36 56 27 64 D 71 24 91 60 23
1979 40 Senate 36 51 44 43 D 59 30 88 50 58
1980 41 Senate 50 42 56 38 D 56 41 94 56 55
1981 42 Senate 51 41 57 33 R 74 20 92 35 36
1982 43 Senate 41 46 47 43 R 55 39 86 80 16
1983 44 Senate 52 45 57 38 R 76 20 95 39 25
1984 45 Senate 70 23 68 29 R 64 30 94 53 41
1985 46 Senate 60 33 54 40 R 64 31 94 37 50
1986 47 Senate 59 38 56 41 R 69 31 98 55 38
1987 48 Senate 53 41 47 49 R 45 49 94 70 35
1988 49 Senate 59 32 40 53 R 55 40 90 58 41
1989 50 Senate 68 29 50 49 R 71 27 99 35 48
1990 51 Senate 73 27 52 47 R 57 43 98 33 48
1991 52 Senate 33 67 63 38 R 79 21 15 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   37%


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.