RightDataUSA


Billy Matthews

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 3, 1907 in Micanopy, FL
Died: October 26, 1997 in Gainesville, FL

Education:

  • University of Florida, 1929

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1942-1946

Career:

  • School teacher/principal, 1929-1936
  • University of Florida administrator, 1936-1952
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1967-1969
  • Political science instructor at Santa Fe Community College, 1969-1977

Elected Office:

  • FL House, 1935


Election Results for Billy Matthews


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 44 FL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 2 18,740 33.0%
1952 44 FL D U.S. House District 08 Primary Runoff 1 28,742 52.5%
1952 44 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 40,513 100.0%
1954 46 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 16,732 100.0%
1956 48 FL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 42,341 69.6%
1956 48 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 39,362 100.0%
1958 50 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 18,669 100.0%
1960 52 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 46,794 100.0%
1962 54 FL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 37,270 82.6%
1962 54 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 23,387 100.0%
1964 56 FL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 49,374 99.9%
1966 58 FL D U.S. House District 02 Primary 2 49,001 46.2%


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



Ideology Data for Billy Matthews


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 45 House 71 26 R 56 69 36
1954 46 House 73 27 R 61 39 99 56
1955 47 House 68 32 R 63 37 99 40
1956 48 House 72 13 R 44 44 89 57
1957 49 House 71 25 R 43 53 98 44
1958 50 House 54 46 R 48 48 97 33
1959 51 House 91 9 79 21 R 44 56 100 33
1960 52 House 47 53 73 27 R 51 49 99 44
1961 53 House 91 9 64 36 D 74 26 100 20 60
1962 54 House 69 31 72 28 D 75 22 98 50 47
1963 55 House 60 13 77 15 D 77 14 92 36 50
1964 56 House 75 25 73 26 D 77 21 97 58 47
1965 57 House 90 6 42 51 D 54 36 88 0 76
1966 58 House 41 46 51 18 D 58 16 73 25 50
Lifetime conservative rating:   55%


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.