RightDataUSA


Tom Latham

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 14, 1948 in Hampton, IA

Education:

  • Attended Waverly College, 1966-1967
  • Attended Iowa State University, 1967-1970

Career:

  • Farmer
  • Insurance businessman, 1970-1976
  • Co-owner of seed company


Election Results for Tom Latham


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1994 45 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 47,454 62.4%
1994 45 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 114,796 60.8%
1996 47 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 30,374 99.7%
1996 47 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 147,576 65.4%
1998 49 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 31,563 99.9%
1998 49 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 132,730 99.2%
2000 51 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 22,516 90.1%
2000 51 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 159,637 68.8%
2002 53 IA R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 38,321 88.4%
2002 53 IA R U.S. House District 04 General 1 115,430 54.8%
2004 55 IA R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 12,350 100.0%
2004 55 IA R U.S. House District 04 General 1 181,294 60.9%
2006 57 IA R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 14,899 100.0%
2006 57 IA R U.S. House District 04 General 1 121,650 57.2%
2008 59 IA R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 13,144 100.0%
2008 59 IA R U.S. House District 04 General 1 185,458 60.6%
2010 61 IA R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 42,605 100.0%
2010 61 IA R U.S. House District 04 General 1 152,588 65.6%
2012 63 IA R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 27,757 99.2%
2012 63 IA R U.S. House District 03 General 1 202,000 52.2%


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



Ideology Data for Tom Latham


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
1995 46 House 93 7 97 3 D 17 80 99 5 84
1996 47 House 94 6 95 4 D 32 67 99 0 95
1997 48 House 93 7 93 7 D 28 72 99 10 76
1998 49 House 98 2 94 6 D 24 76 99 0 92
1999 50 House 89 8 D 24 72 97 5 88
2000 51 House 93 6 D 28 72 99 5 88
2001 52 House 94 2 R 88 9 96 0 91
2002 53 House 92 8 R 86 14 100 5 88
2003 54 House 95 5 R 93 7 100 5 88
2004 55 House 91 8 R 85 15 98 10 72
2005 56 House 96 4 R 85 15 99 5 84
2006 57 House 95 5 R 100 0 99 5 84
2007 58 House 85 14 R 68 31 99 20 84
2008 59 House 92 8 R 63 36 99 32 88
2009 60 House 80 18 D 36 64 99 5 80
2010 61 House 88 9 D 29 71 99 0 91
2011 62 House 91 8 D 23 76 99 10 76
2012 63 House 87 13 D 14 86 99 0 71
2013 64 House 93 7 D 15 85 100 5 52
2014 65 House 88 10 D 14 86 98 0 52
Lifetime conservative rating:   81%


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.