RightDataUSA


Patrick Leahy

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 31, 1940 in Montpelier, VT

Education:

  • St. Michael's College, B.A., 1961
  • Georgetown University, J.D., 1964

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • VT state's Attorney for Chittenden County, 1966-1974


Election Results for Patrick Leahy


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 34 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 19,801 83.9%
1974 34 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 70,629 49.5%
1980 40 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 27,548 100.0%
1980 40 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 104,176 49.8%
1986 46 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 21,255 100.0%
1986 46 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 124,123 63.2%
1992 52 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 24,721 100.0%
1992 52 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 154,762 54.2%
1998 58 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 18,643 96.6%
1998 58 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 154,567 72.2%
2004 64 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 27,459 94.6%
2004 64 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 216,972 70.6%
2010 70 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 64,515 89.1%
2010 70 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 151,281 64.3%
2016 76 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 62,249 88.6%
2016 76 VT D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 192,243 61.3%


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



Ideology Data for Patrick Leahy


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
1975 35 Senate 3 87 91 2 R 43 52 93 94 3
1976 36 Senate 7 89 91 5 R 36 51 93 89 6
1977 37 Senate 18 75 74 15 D 77 18 89 89 6
1978 38 Senate 13 84 90 7 D 87 10 97 65 8
1979 39 Senate 16 77 80 15 D 76 18 94 89 9
1980 40 Senate 13 75 72 16 D 64 22 88 88 6
1981 41 Senate 4 84 76 8 R 34 60 86 95 7
1982 42 Senate 12 88 91 9 R 37 62 99 90 16
1983 43 Senate 18 82 89 10 R 41 58 98 85 4
1984 44 Senate 15 77 85 11 R 30 62 93 95 10
1985 45 Senate 27 73 83 16 R 29 68 98 70 14
1986 46 Senate 21 75 83 11 R 24 70 93 85 10
1987 47 Senate 9 84 85 9 R 33 62 95 95 4
1988 48 Senate 8 92 93 5 R 34 58 97 100 0
1989 49 Senate 8 92 96 4 R 47 53 99 100 0
1990 50 Senate 22 78 93 7 R 32 68 100 94 4
1991 51 Senate 18 80 90 10 R 29 72 99 95 5
1992 52 Senate 5 92 90 4 R 23 75 94 100 0
1993 53 Senate 27 73 92 6 D 92 7 98 95 8
1994 54 Senate 6 94 96 4 D 89 11 100 95 0
1995 55 Senate 9 89 93 4 D 87 11 97 100 0
1996 56 Senate 32 63 85 12 D 75 25 97 90 5
1997 57 Senate 20 80 89 11 D 87 13 98 84 13
1998 58 Senate 13 88 86 13 D 81 17 99 90 12
1999 59 Senate 94 6 93 6 D 82 18 98 95 4
2000 60 Senate 94 6 86 6 D 89 11 95 94 9
2001 61 Senate 97 2 R 59 39 98 100 8
2002 62 Senate 97 2 R 67 31 99 95 0
2003 63 Senate 96 3 R 50 49 99 89 16
2004 64 Senate 92 6 R 61 39 96 100 8
2005 65 Senate 97 3 R 38 62 99 100 0
2006 66 Senate 96 3 R 46 54 99 100 0
2007 67 Senate 95 5 R 32 66 99 100 0
2008 68 Senate 98 2 R 33 67 99 100 4
2009 69 Senate 96 2 D 94 4 98 100 8
2010 70 Senate 98 0 D 98 2 99 100 0
2011 71 Senate 98 1 D 92 4 97 100 5
2012 72 Senate 95 3 D 94 4 98 100 4
2013 73 Senate 99 1 D 97 3 100 100 4
2014 74 Senate 97 0 D 97 1 98 95 0
2015 75 Senate 98 1 D 89 11 99 100 0
2016 76 Senate 96 1 D 87 6 97 95 0
2017 77 Senate 97 1 R 38 62 98 100 0
2018 78 Senate 88 10 R 39 54 96 90 5
2019 79 Senate 90 9 R 44 56 99 100 0
2020 80 Senate 86 8 R 39 50 93 100 4
2021 81 Senate 98 0 D 95 5 98 100 3
2022 82 Senate 87 0 D 92 0 87 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   5%


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.