RightDataUSA


Melvin Laird

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 1, 1922 in Omaha, NE
Died: November 16, 2016 in Fort Myers, FL

Education:

  • Carleton College, B.A., 1942

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1946 (awarded the Purple Heart)

Career:

  • Secretary-treasurer of lumber company
  • U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1969-1973
  • Domestic advisor to President Nixon, 1973-1974

Elected Office:

  • WI Senate, 1946-1952


Election Results for Melvin Laird


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 29 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 30,637 49.0%
1952 29 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 95,049 72.3%
1954 31 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 26,137 100.0%
1954 31 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 57,581 59.1%
1956 33 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 36,897 100.0%
1956 33 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 80,143 61.8%
1958 35 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 21,525 100.0%
1958 35 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 59,186 60.5%
1960 37 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 34,060 100.0%
1960 37 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 95,152 67.1%
1962 39 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 37,455 100.0%
1962 39 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 68,418 66.1%
1964 41 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 35,435 100.0%
1964 41 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 98,110 61.8%
1966 43 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 18,831 100.0%
1966 43 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 74,942 65.1%
1968 45 WI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 30,347 100.0%
1968 45 WI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 101,808 64.1%


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



Ideology Data for Melvin Laird


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
1953 30 House 87 13 R 71 100 9
1954 31 House 93 3 R 82 13 93 11
1955 32 House 87 6 R 51 37 89 10
1956 33 House 84 9 R 82 15 95 29
1957 34 House 83 3 R 50 38 87 22
1958 35 House 89 11 R 42 58 100 0
1959 36 House 82 0 81 2 R 67 20 84 0
1960 37 House 84 11 88 10 R 77 23 97 11
1961 38 House 100 0 83 5 D 22 66 91 0 100
1962 39 House 63 6 74 5 D 32 53 77 13 86
1963 40 House 67 13 77 10 D 30 59 87 8 81
1964 41 House 100 0 84 11 D 29 63 88 8 81
1965 42 House 84 4 76 5 D 32 52 84 0 100
1966 43 House 78 5 70 13 D 33 48 79 0 84
1967 44 House 74 11 78 10 D 43 43 84 7 73
1968 45 House 65 20 71 15 D 45 41 84 0 90
Lifetime conservative rating:   87%


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.