Election results and ideology ratings for William Proxmire -- RightDataUSA.com

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 11, 1915 in Lake Forest, IL
Died: December 15, 2005 in Washington, DC

Election Results for William Proxmire

Year	Age	State	Party	Office	Stage	Pos	Votes	%
1952	36	WI	D	Governor	Primary	1	178,133	100.0%
1952	36	WI	D	Governor	General	2	601,844	37.3%

1954	38	WI	D	Governor	Primary	1	141,548	62.4%
1954	38	WI	D	Governor	General	2	560,747	48.4%

1956	40	WI	D	Governor	Primary	1	265,475	100.0%
1956	40	WI	D	Governor	General	2	749,421	48.1%

1957	41	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Special Primary	1	86,341	18.7%
1957	41	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Special	1	435,985	56.4%

1958	42	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Primary	1	220,146	91.3%
1958	42	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	General	1	682,440	57.1%

1964	48	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Primary	1	295,676	88.8%
1964	48	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	General	1	892,013	53.3%

1970	54	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Primary	1	260,990	100.0%
1970	54	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	General	1	948,445	70.8%

1976	60	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Primary	1	299,304	100.0%
1976	60	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	General	1	1,396,970	72.2%

1982	66	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	Primary	1	467,214	86.1%
1982	66	WI	D	U.S. Senate Class 1	General	1	983,311	63.6%

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

Ideology Data for William Proxmire

Year	Age	Body	Conservative Coalition		Party Unity		Presidential Support			Vote %	Liberal	Conserv.
Year	Age	Body					P			Vote %	Liberal	Conserv.
1957	41	Senate			0	0	R	100	0	100	0
1958	42	Senate			96	6	R	41	59	100	100
1959	43	Senate	10	90	86	10	R	36	61	98	100
1960	44	Senate	2	89	80	17	R	42	57	96	100
1961	45	Senate	23	75	76	22	D	81	19	99	80	21
1962	46	Senate	44	56	45	55	D	66	34	99	67	38
1963	47	Senate	35	65	58	42	D	59	41	100	71	31
1964	48	Senate	14	86	65	35	D	62	38	100	95	25
1965	49	Senate	5	95	87	13	D	78	21	99	88	7
1966	50	Senate	16	84	78	21	D	75	25	99	90	17
1967	51	Senate	25	75	74	26	D	68	32	100	77	33
1968	52	Senate	11	89	71	29	D	70	30	100	64	32
1969	53	Senate	19	81	85	15	R	47	53	100	78	20
1970	54	Senate	16	84	86	14	R	54	46	100	70	5
1971	55	Senate	5	95	91	9	R	38	62	100	96	0
1972	56	Senate	24	76	82	18	R	39	61	100	75	42
1973	57	Senate	11	89	86	14	R	41	59	100	85	8
1974	58	Senate	25	75	76	24	R	42	58	100	81*	19
1975	59	Senate	17	83	86	14	R	48	52	100	78	23
1976	60	Senate	12	88	83	17	R	43	57	100	65	26
1977	61	Senate	17	83	82	18	D	64	36	100	70	27
1978	62	Senate	38	63	66	34	D	74	26	100	60	29
1979	63	Senate	37	63	51	49	D	53	47	100	42	53
1980	64	Senate	39	61	63	37	D	54	46	100	56	67
1981	65	Senate	60	40	53	47	R	52	48	100	55	53
1982	66	Senate	54	46	57	43	R	50	50	100	75	53
1983	67	Senate	50	50	57	43	R	51	49	100	55	24
1984	68	Senate	28	72	65	35	R	45	55	100	63	23
1985	69	Senate	37	63	56	44	R	48	52	100	60	29
1986	70	Senate	22	78	76	24	R	28	72	100	60	29
1987	71	Senate	31	69	64	36	R	40	60	100	80	19
1988	72	Senate	11	89	84	16	R	59	41	100	90	16
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.