RightDataUSA


Estes Kefauver

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 26, 1903 near Madisonville, TN
Died: August 10, 1963 in Bethesda, MD

Education:

  • University of Tennessee, 1924
  • Yale University Law School, 1927

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • TN Commissioner of Finance and Taxation, 1939

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for TN Senate, 1936
  • Candidate for Democrat presidential nomination, 1952, 1956
  • Candidate for Vice-President, 1956


Election Results for Estes Kefauver


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1939 35 TN D U.S. House District 03 Special 1 14,268 71.3%
1940 36 TN D U.S. House District 03 General 1 35,332 68.7%
1942 38 TN D U.S. House District 03 General 1 14,704 75.6%
1944 40 TN D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 16,784 100.0%
1944 40 TN D U.S. House District 03 General 1 32,497 67.8%
1946 42 TN D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 28,447 86.6%
1946 42 TN D U.S. House District 03 General 1 26,779 90.8%
1948 44 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 171,791 42.2%
1948 44 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 326,062 65.3%
1954 50 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 440,497 68.2%
1954 50 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 249,121 70.0%
1960 56 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 463,848 64.6%
1960 56 TN D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 594,460 71.7%


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



Ideology Data for Estes Kefauver


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
1939 35 House 9 0 D 6
1940 36 House 85 6 D 88
1941 37 House 93 2 D 89
1942 38 House 45 25 D 85
1943 39 House 79 13 D 86
1944 40 House 83 10 D 92
1945 41 House 68 10 D 69
1946 42 House 61 5 D 52
1947 43 House 74 16 D 77 89
1948 44 House 67 3 D 34 90
1949 45 Senate 89 1 D 88 92
1950 46 Senate 68 8 D 73 85
1951 47 Senate 66 8 D 65 90
1952 48 Senate 42 5 D 22 100
1953 49 Senate 83 6 R 5 76 75
1954 50 Senate 66 6 R 17 43 50 100
1955 51 Senate 73 12 R 52 33 79 100
1956 52 Senate 48 0 R 18 25 49 100
1957 53 Senate 74 8 R 56 33 86 75
1958 54 Senate 87 5 R 47 45 89 92
1959 55 Senate 15 65 76 8 R 35 52 84 85
1960 56 Senate 22 39 49 7 R 25 23 57 75
1961 57 Senate 15 75 83 6 D 76 11 88 90 21
1962 58 Senate 9 79 85 4 D 74 15 85 83 31
1963 59 Senate 40 2 D 24 1 34 86 13
Lifetime conservative rating:   24%


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.