RightDataUSA


Marvin Leath

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 6, 1931 in Henderson, TX
Died: December 8, 2000 in Arlington, VA

Education:

  • University of Texas, B.B.A., 1954

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1954-1956

Career:

  • High school football/track coach, 1957-1959
  • Bank officer and director
  • Assistant to Rep. Bob Poage, 1972-1974



Election Results for Marvin Leath


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 47 TX D U.S. House District 11 Primary 2 29,523 29.9%
1978 47 TX D U.S. House District 11 Primary Runoff 1 40,261 54.9%
1978 47 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 53,354 51.6%
1980 49 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 128,520 100.0%
1982 51 TX D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 52,029 82.0%
1982 51 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 83,236 96.3%
1984 53 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 112,940 100.0%
1986 55 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 84,201 100.0%
1988 57 TX D U.S. House District 11 General 1 134,207 95.4%


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




Ideology Data for Marvin Leath


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
1979 48 House 96 1 21 74 D 27 68 94 6 83
1980 49 House 80 4 21 65 D 33 58 90 0 86
1981 50 House 91 7 30 65 R 68 28 95 0 92
1982 51 House 88 4 31 64 R 66 30 94 11 70
1983 52 House 92 1 29 60 R 61 32 90 11 100
1984 53 House 83 3 36 50 R 50 38 86 5 67
1985 54 House 91 4 46 49 R 52 45 95 11 74
1986 55 House 82 16 55 33 R 53 43 90 45 57
1987 56 House 81 9 50 38 R 47 46 90 26 41
1988 57 House 82 8 50 31 R 50 38 82 16 71
1989 58 House 78 7 50 36 R 60 27 85 16 56
1990 59 House 69 7 43 21 R 36 38 69 14 56
Lifetime conservative rating:   71%


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.