RightDataUSA


Ron Paul

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 20, 1935 in Pittsburgh, PA

Education:

  • Gettysburg College, B.A., 1957
  • Duke University, M.D., 1961

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1963-1965 (flight surgeon)
  • U.S. Air National Guard, 1965-1968

Career:

  • Physician, 1968-1996

Elected Office:

  • Libertarian Party candidate for President, 1988


Election Results for Ron Paul


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 38 TX R U.S. House District 22 General 2 19,483 28.4%
1976 40 TX R U.S. House District 22 Primary 1 19,119 93.4%
1976 40 TX R U.S. House District 22 Special Open Primary 2 14,386 39.6%
1976 40 TX R U.S. House District 22 Special 1 39,041 56.2%
1976 40 TX R U.S. House District 22 General 2 96,267 49.9%
1978 42 TX R U.S. House District 22 General 1 54,643 50.6%
1980 44 TX R U.S. House District 22 General 1 106,797 51.0%
1982 46 TX R U.S. House District 22 Primary 1 14,676 87.5%
1982 46 TX R U.S. House District 22 General 1 66,536 98.6%
1984 48 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 55,431 16.5%
1996 60 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 2 11,112 32.0%
1996 60 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary Runoff 1 11,244 54.1%
1996 60 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 99,961 51.1%
1998 62 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 19,883 100.0%
1998 62 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 84,459 55.3%
2000 64 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 37,892 100.0%
2000 64 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 137,370 59.7%
2002 66 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 22,715 100.0%
2002 66 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 102,905 68.1%
2004 68 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 21,095 100.0%
2004 68 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 173,668 100.0%
2006 70 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 24,086 77.6%
2006 70 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 94,380 60.2%
2008 72 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 37,777 70.4%
2008 72 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 191,293 100.0%
2010 74 TX R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 45,990 80.8%
2010 74 TX R U.S. House District 14 General 1 140,623 76.0%


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



Ideology Data for Ron Paul


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
1976 40 House 85 12 84 13 R 66 31 94 14 90
1979 43 House 85 15 90 9 D 22 76 97 21 97
1980 44 House 87 13 93 4 D 19 78 96 22 94
1981 45 House 58 36 69 22 R 59 36 90 33 92
1982 46 House 62 34 83 15 R 53 44 96 37 81
1983 47 House 48 35 71 9 R 48 34 80 17 85
1984 48 House 41 36 50 16 R 29 32 61 29 86
1997 61 House 49 51 80 19 D 40 59 98 30 80
1998 62 House 55 43 74 23 D 30 67 98 20 88
1999 63 House 75 24 D 33 63 97 11 92
2000 64 House 78 19 D 28 62 93 30 76
2001 65 House 75 20 R 44 47 94 24 70
2002 66 House 73 23 R 43 54 97 30 76
2003 67 House 67 23 R 42 56 92 60 71
2004 68 House 71 15 R 39 52 86 53 78
2005 69 House 68 27 R 37 61 95 44 76
2006 70 House 61 29 R 29 61 91 47 76
2007 71 House 60 9 R 50 21 71 25 77
2008 72 House 74 7 R 54 24 83 12 90
2009 73 House 81 10 D 12 75 91 5 91
2010 74 House 85 9 D 24 76 93 15 96
2011 75 House 59 13 D 14 62 70 36 78
2012 76 House 45 12 D 29 36 54 58 68
Lifetime conservative rating:   83%


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.