RightDataUSA


Wright Patman

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 6, 1893 near Hughes Springs, TX
Died: May 7, 1976 in Bethesda, MD

Education:

  • Cumberland University Law School, 1916

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1917-1919

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant Cass County attorney, 1916-1917
  • District attorney, 1924-1929

Other notes:

  • Father of Bill Patman



Election Results for Wright Patman


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1936 42 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 29,351 97.6%
1938 44 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 14,833 98.7%
1940 46 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 37,507 63.8%
1940 46 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 27,030 100.0%
1942 48 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 47,066 100.0%
1942 48 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 9,502 100.0%
1944 50 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 27,553 58.7%
1944 50 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 39,404 100.0%
1946 52 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 39,818 74.0%
1946 52 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 11,929 100.0%
1948 54 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 37,164 63.3%
1948 54 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 40,162 100.0%
1950 56 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 31,803 68.6%
1950 56 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 12,444 100.0%
1952 58 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 41,174 67.0%
1952 58 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 56,491 100.0%
1954 60 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 32,243 54.5%
1954 60 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 18,104 100.0%
1956 62 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 41,077 62.5%
1956 62 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 54,837 100.0%
1958 64 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 19,203 100.0%
1960 66 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 58,674 100.0%
1962 68 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 34,944 61.4%
1962 68 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 26,669 67.3%
1964 70 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 52,698 74.6%
1966 72 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 50,072 100.0%
1968 74 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 87,038 100.0%
1970 76 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 59,479 76.9%
1970 76 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 67,883 78.5%
1972 78 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 69,579 56.6%
1972 78 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 93,891 100.0%
1974 80 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 57,609 54.4%
1974 80 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 49,426 68.6%


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




Ideology Data for Wright Patman


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
1937 43 House 76 15 D 88
1938 44 House 93 5 D 95
1939 45 House 78 3 D 81
1940 46 House 87 5 D 92
1941 47 House 91 4 D 96
1942 48 House 85 10 D 92
1943 49 House 90 2 D 91
1944 50 House 53 0 D 54
1945 51 House 84 4 D 86
1946 52 House 79 13 D 88
1947 53 House 66 8 D 70 83
1948 54 House 92 6 D 91 77
1949 55 House 88 8 D 91 85
1950 56 House 79 4 D 82 83
1951 57 House 94 1 D 86 77
1952 58 House 59 34 D 82 38
1953 59 House 79 13 R 48 93 50
1954 60 House 73 7 R 29 34 76 71
1955 61 House 84 10 R 68 29 96 78
1956 62 House 31 9 R 35 26 45 25
1957 63 House 88 8 R 55 43 97 38
1958 64 House 86 11 R 60 38 97 67
1959 65 House 73 27 85 10 R 30 63 93 67
1960 66 House 26 74 88 8 R 30 60 95 56
1961 67 House 17 78 90 9 D 82 15 98 80 21
1962 68 House 19 50 74 12 D 70 13 83 57 17
1963 69 House 27 67 89 5 D 83 8 93 75 20
1964 70 House 33 67 90 8 D 90 8 96 77 19
1965 71 House 24 65 81 9 D 79 9 88 47 33
1966 72 House 19 81 84 6 D 81 11 91 71 20
1967 73 House 24 57 73 3 D 71 7 79 54 23
1968 74 House 27 47 55 16 D 68 14 69 50 9
1969 75 House 33 44 65 18 R 47 26 77 42 36
1970 76 House 45 25 50 31 R 38 32 71 18 50
1971 77 House 38 21 40 21 R 49 25 65 32 31
1972 78 House 39 26 36 26 R 51 38 67 18 44
1973 79 House 30 29 50 13 R 26 36 61 50 47
1974 80 House 35 38 51 20 R 45 21 72 26* 58
1975 81 House 33 42 61 18 R 34 47 76 42* 34
1976 82 House 3 3 R 10 8 5 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   31%


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.