RightDataUSA


Adam Clayton Powell

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 29, 1908 in New Haven, CT
Died: April 4, 1972 in Miami, FL

Education:

  • Colgate University, 1930
  • Columbia University, 1932
  • Shaw University School of Theology, 1934

Career:

  • Ordained minister
  • Instructor at Columbia University extension school, 1932-1940
  • NY Office of Price Administration, 1942-1944

Elected Office:

  • New York city council, 1941


Election Results for Adam Clayton Powell


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1944 35 NY D,R U.S. House District 22 General 1 83,140 100.0%
1946 37 NY D U.S. House District 22 General 1 32,573 62.5%
1948 39 NY D U.S. House District 22 General 1 63,523 76.4%
1950 41 NY D U.S. House District 22 General 1 35,233 63.5%
1952 43 NY D U.S. House District 16 General 1 72,562 73.9%
1954 45 NY D U.S. House District 16 General 1 43,545 79.0%
1956 47 NY D U.S. House District 16 General 1 59,339 69.7%
1958 49 NY D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 14,935 75.1%
1958 49 NY D,R U.S. House District 16 General 1 56,383 90.8%
1960 51 NY D U.S. House District 16 General 1 59,957 71.6%
1962 53 NY D U.S. House District 18 General 1 59,125 69.6%
1964 55 NY D U.S. House District 18 General 1 94,222 84.6%
1966 57 NY D U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 14,545 86.6%
1966 57 NY D U.S. House District 18 General 1 45,308 74.0%
1967 58 NY D U.S. House District 18 Special 1 27,963 86.3%
1968 59 NY D U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 6,723 60.2%
1968 59 NY D U.S. House District 18 General 1 37,146 80.8%
1970 61 NY D U.S. House District 18 Primary 2 7,882 32.2%


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



Ideology Data for Adam Clayton Powell


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
1945 36 House 42 8 D 43
1946 37 House 59 10 D 45
1947 38 House 58 3 D 33 88
1948 39 House 75 6 D 66 89
1949 40 House 53 15 D 64 90
1950 41 House 45 14 D 50 77
1951 42 House 52 3 D 35 100
1952 43 House 43 11 D 24 100
1953 44 House 50 8 R 47 46 100
1954 45 House 53 7 R 24 16 33 100
1955 46 House 65 0 R 41 22 67 100
1956 47 House 38 16 R 47 21 58 100
1957 48 House 47 2 R 33 10 36 88
1958 49 House 27 11 R 40 8 46 100
1959 50 House 0 73 58 8 R 22 31 51 100
1960 51 House 0 32 47 10 R 26 33 49 100
1961 52 House 0 57 59 0 D 55 3 54 100 0
1962 53 House 0 69 61 0 D 62 2 54 100 0
1963 54 House 0 60 60 5 D 66 7 64 100 0
1964 55 House 8 42 44 5 D 50 4 49 100 8
1965 56 House 0 76 71 1 D 69 4 66 100 0
1966 57 House 5 68 54 3 D 40 3 50 100 8
1969 60 House 0 9 10 0 R 4 2 5 100 0
1970 61 House 2 18 18 1 R 11 12 15 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   3%


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.