RightDataUSA


Eugene McCarthy

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 29, 1916 in Watkins, MN
Died: December 10, 2005 in Woodville, VA

Education:

  • St. John's (MN) University, 1935
  • University of Minnesota, 1939

Career:

  • School teacher, 1935-1940
  • Economics professor at St. John's University, 1940-1943
  • Instructor of sociology & economics at St. Thomas College, 1946-1949

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for Democratic presidential nomination, 1968


Election Results for Eugene McCarthy


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1948 32 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 11,270 37.4%
1948 32 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 General 1 78,476 59.4%
1950 34 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 General 1 59,930 60.4%
1952 36 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 General 1 98,015 61.7%
1954 38 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 34,154 84.7%
1954 38 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 General 1 81,651 63.0%
1956 40 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 35,895 100.0%
1956 40 MN DFL U.S. House District 04 General 1 103,320 64.1%
1958 42 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 279,976 75.7%
1958 42 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 608,847 52.9%
1964 48 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 245,068 90.5%
1964 48 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 931,363 60.3%
1982 66 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 125,229 24.1%


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



Ideology Data for Eugene McCarthy


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
1949 33 House 86 8 D 95 100
1950 34 House 77 10 D 80 93
1951 35 House 93 4 D 90 92
1952 36 House 86 2 D 83 100
1953 37 House 71 16 R 64 77 100
1954 38 House 83 10 R 55 37 93 100
1955 39 House 87 3 R 61 29 88 89
1956 40 House 75 3 R 59 26 81 100
1957 41 House 75 8 R 57 28 80 100
1958 42 House 65 5 R 48 14 69 92
1959 43 Senate 2 87 85 5 R 31 55 86 100
1960 44 Senate 4 72 76 14 R 38 49 85 100
1961 45 Senate 9 71 69 5 D 58 10 74 100 0
1962 46 Senate 24 74 86 4 D 81 13 89 83 19
1963 47 Senate 0 93 88 0 D 84 2 85 94 0
1964 48 Senate 14 76 80 9 D 79 6 86 79 7
1965 49 Senate 7 38 51 4 D 62 4 59 88 11
1966 50 Senate 3 86 81 4 D 68 17 83 95 0
1967 51 Senate 13 45 49 7 D 56 12 66 80 22
1968 52 Senate 0 7 4 0 D 5 2 5 100 0
1969 53 Senate 12 55 53 12 R 29 43 61 94 10
1970 54 Senate 0 47 43 1 R 16 24 32 93 11
Lifetime conservative rating:   7%


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.