RightDataUSA


Gaylord Nelson

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 4, 1916 in Clear Lake, WI
Died: July 3, 2005 in Kensington, MD (cardiovascular failure)

Education:

  • San Jose State College, 1939
  • University of Wisconsin Law School, 1942

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, World War II

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • WI Senate, 1948-1958

Other notes:

  • Founder of Earth Day, 1970


Election Results for Gaylord Nelson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1954 38 WI D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 25,386 100.0%
1954 38 WI D U.S. House District 02 General 2 63,449 46.0%
1958 42 WI D Governor Primary 1 234,345 100.0%
1958 42 WI D Governor General 1 644,296 53.6%
1960 44 WI D Governor Primary 1 258,141 100.0%
1960 44 WI D Governor General 1 890,868 51.6%
1962 46 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 190,289 100.0%
1962 46 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 662,342 52.6%
1968 52 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 183,376 100.0%
1968 52 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,020,931 61.7%
1974 58 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 294,405 100.0%
1974 58 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 740,700 61.8%
1980 64 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 189,245 100.0%
1980 64 WI D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 1,065,487 48.3%


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



Ideology Data for Gaylord 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
1963 47 Senate 5 93 84 8 D 83 8 92 100 6
1964 48 Senate 4 96 79 18 D 77 19 97 100 6
1965 49 Senate 5 89 82 11 D 73 20 91 94 7
1966 50 Senate 6 83 71 15 D 61 24 85 100 12
1967 51 Senate 4 77 74 13 D 62 28 88 100 14
1968 52 Senate 4 77 70 12 D 53 27 79 77 20
1969 53 Senate 3 90 89 4 R 36 57 92 100 13
1970 54 Senate 4 81 73 9 R 43 44 84 100 5
1971 55 Senate 3 93 88 7 R 28 63 96 100 0
1972 56 Senate 11 89 91 9 R 30 70 99 95 17
1973 57 Senate 4 88 86 4 R 31 66 92 95 5
1974 58 Senate 6 85 85 11 R 31 63 94 86* 14
1975 59 Senate 13 86 89 8 R 40 53 95 89 3
1976 60 Senate 4 86 87 4 R 34 60 93 100 3
1977 61 Senate 10 85 84 10 D 75 25 94 90 0
1978 62 Senate 14 84 89 10 D 85 13 97 70 9
1979 63 Senate 9 80 81 10 D 72 19 91 89 6
1980 64 Senate 7 83 79 9 D 63 24 89 94 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.