RightDataUSA


Bob Kerrey

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 27, 1943 in Lincoln, NE

Education:

  • University of Nebraska, M.S., 1966

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy (SEAL Special Forces Unit), 1966-1969
  • Wounded in Vietnam and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life"

Career:

  • Businessman/restaurant owner, 1972-1982


Election Results for Bob Kerrey


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1982 38 NE D Governor Primary 1 87,913 71.0%
1982 38 NE D Governor General 1 277,436 50.6%
1988 44 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 156,498 91.4%
1988 44 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 378,717 56.7%
1994 50 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 107,137 99.3%
1994 50 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 317,297 54.8%
2012 68 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 66,586 81.0%
2012 68 NE D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 332,979 42.2%


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



Ideology Data for Bob Kerrey


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
1989 45 Senate 26 74 88 12 R 51 49 100 80 12
1990 46 Senate 49 51 84 16 R 40 60 99 83 13
1991 47 Senate 45 35 70 13 R 32 52 77 83 5
1992 48 Senate 18 58 74 9 R 25 58 84 100 0
1993 49 Senate 59 39 77 21 D 80 19 98 75 8
1994 50 Senate 47 53 83 17 D 89 10 99 80 24
1995 51 Senate 37 60 78 20 D 81 17 98 80 0
1996 52 Senate 32 68 85 12 D 81 14 97 85 5
1997 53 Senate 52 48 78 21 D 87 11 99 75 4
1998 54 Senate 75 25 88 11 D 89 10 98 90 0
1999 55 Senate 87 13 87 13 D 91 9 100 100 8
2000 56 Senate 83 17 82 17 D 84 16 98 85 16
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.