RightDataUSA


Alton Lennon

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 17, 1906 in Wilmington, NC
Died: December 28, 1986 in Wilmington, NC

Education:

  • Wake Forest College, 1929

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • New Hanover County judge, 1934-1942

Elected Office:

  • NC Senate, 1947-1951
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on July 10, 1953 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Willis Smith


Election Results for Alton Lennon


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1954 47 NC D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 286,730 46.6%
1954 47 NC D U.S. Senate Class 2 Special Primary 2 264,265 47.5%
1956 49 NC D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 34,402 59.6%
1956 49 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 65,424 84.0%
1958 51 NC D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 52,975 80.0%
1958 51 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 27,902 89.0%
1960 53 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 71,726 76.5%
1962 55 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 33,173 77.0%
1964 57 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 71,357 100.0%
1966 59 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 40,512 100.0%
1968 61 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 77,419 100.0%
1970 63 NC D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 32,675 56.7%
1970 63 NC D U.S. House District 07 General 1 37,377 72.0%


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



Ideology Data for Alton Lennon


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 46 Senate 10 10 R 49 31 0
1954 47 Senate 51 33 R 36 29 64 15
1957 50 House 46 39 R 32 58 87 22
1958 51 House 51 35 R 42 44 84 17
1959 52 House 100 0 67 27 R 33 63 94 22
1960 53 House 89 5 37 55 R 28 67 94 11
1961 54 House 87 4 47 48 D 57 42 93 0 71
1962 55 House 94 6 42 49 D 57 42 94 0 73
1963 56 House 87 0 28 53 D 34 52 86 10 94
1964 57 House 100 0 24 69 D 40 56 94 0 93
1965 58 House 90 2 16 70 D 31 56 89 0 100
1966 59 House 97 3 15 75 D 33 58 91 6 85
1967 60 House 100 0 16 84 D 35 64 98 0 100
1968 61 House 84 8 30 62 D 44 52 94 0 83
1969 62 House 93 2 25 65 R 43 47 89 7 100
1970 63 House 80 5 42 46 R 49 28 77 12 76
1971 64 House 90 2 22 63 R 70 16 86 3 100
1972 65 House 61 7 15 47 R 43 32 65 8 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   89%


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.