RightDataUSA


Tom Railsback

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 22, 1932 in Moline, IL
Died: January 20, 2020 in Mesa, AZ

Education:

  • Grinnell College, 1954
  • Northwestern University Law School, 1957

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1957-1959

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • IL House, 1962-1966


Election Results for Tom Railsback


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 34 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 77,895 52.3%
1968 36 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 114,948 63.5%
1970 38 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 92,247 68.2%
1972 40 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 138,123 100.0%
1974 42 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 84,049 65.3%
1976 44 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 132,571 68.5%
1978 46 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 89,770 100.0%
1980 48 IL R U.S. House District 19 General 1 142,616 73.4%
1982 50 IL R U.S. House District 17 Primary 2 23,068 48.9%


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



Ideology Data for Tom Railsback


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
1967 35 House 61 35 71 27 D 56 42 95 13 54
1968 36 House 53 39 56 30 D 58 28 83 33 55
1969 37 House 40 42 51 31 R 55 34 83 55 15
1970 38 House 34 39 51 35 R 66 18 80 56 41
1971 39 House 43 32 47 31 R 58 25 79 53 24
1972 40 House 51 32 52 34 R 76 8 80 50 57
1973 41 House 56 36 49 41 R 51 35 86 40 48
1974 42 House 51 38 54 37 R 64 25 90 30* 39
1975 43 House 63 26 54 31 R 65 29 84 59 50
1976 44 House 61 31 49 43 R 51 43 87 25 58
1977 45 House 51 35 47 36 D 52 35 80 45 47
1978 46 House 57 37 54 40 D 51 38 90 20 70
1979 47 House 55 38 44 48 D 52 36 88 26 42
1980 48 House 44 39 49 35 D 49 34 82 53 26
1981 49 House 55 37 52 44 R 55 41 89 44 73
1982 50 House 45 37 38 37 R 44 35 77 53 32
Lifetime conservative rating:   46%


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.