RightDataUSA


Bill Nelson

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 29, 1942 in Miami, FL

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Reserve, 1965-1971

Elected Office:

  • FL House, 1973-1978
  • FL Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner, 1995-2000

Other notes:

  • Crewmember on the twenty-fourth flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, January 12-18, 1986


Election Results for Bill Nelson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 35 FL D U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 36,565 86.0%
1978 35 FL D U.S. House District 09 General 1 89,543 61.5%
1980 37 FL D U.S. House District 09 General 1 139,468 70.4%
1982 39 FL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 101,746 70.6%
1984 41 FL D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 41,232 85.6%
1984 41 FL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 145,764 60.5%
1986 43 FL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 149,109 72.7%
1988 45 FL D U.S. House District 11 General 1 168,390 60.8%
1990 47 FL D Governor Primary 2 327,731 30.5%
1994 51 FL D Treasurer Primary 1 431,623 54.6%
1994 51 FL D Treasurer General 1 2,070,604 51.7%
1998 55 FL D Treasurer General 1 2,195,283 56.5%
2000 57 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 692,147 77.5%
2000 57 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,989,487 51.0%
2006 63 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,890,548 60.3%
2012 69 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 690,112 78.8%
2012 69 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 4,523,451 55.2%
2018 75 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 4,089,472 49.9%


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



Ideology Data for Bill Nelson


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 36 House 77 19 49 47 D 49 46 92 11 69
1980 37 House 62 13 67 28 D 68 26 94 39 26
1981 38 House 75 12 48 42 R 62 25 88 10 67
1982 39 House 78 19 62 33 R 60 36 94 20 52
1983 40 House 84 12 52 39 R 55 40 92 40 59
1984 41 House 83 17 48 48 R 52 44 95 20 62
1985 42 House 60 11 47 26 R 55 19 73 35 74
1986 43 House 94 6 69 30 R 43 56 99 15 77
1987 44 House 72 28 76 23 R 42 58 99 52 35
1988 45 House 76 16 67 26 R 43 51 93 50 56
1989 46 House 71 24 74 18 R 42 48 89 60 36
1990 47 House 37 20 35 10 R 24 36 44 67 29
2001 58 Senate 92 8 R 67 32 99 95 12
2002 59 Senate 78 21 R 78 17 98 70 30
2003 60 Senate 90 9 R 53 41 98 80 20
2004 61 Senate 90 8 R 71 29 98 84 4
2005 62 Senate 84 16 R 42 53 99 80 20
2006 63 Senate 77 23 R 56 41 98 60 40
2007 64 Senate 89 9 R 42 57 98 95 4
2008 65 Senate 87 10 R 44 54 98 95 8
2009 66 Senate 93 7 D 95 3 99 100 4
2010 67 Senate 87 10 D 94 2 96 89 8
2011 68 Senate 91 9 D 96 3 99 90 15
2012 69 Senate 91 9 D 98 1 99 90 8
2013 70 Senate 96 2 D 99 0 98 85 4
2014 71 Senate 95 2 D 95 1 96 85 0
2015 72 Senate 82 10 D 96 1 93 89 0
2016 73 Senate 89 8 D 90 6 95 90 4
2017 74 Senate 87 12 R 50 48 98 89 0
2018 75 Senate 60 25 R 50 33 89 83 10
Lifetime conservative rating:   27%


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.