RightDataUSA


James Richards

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 31, 1894 in Liberty Hill, SC
Died: February 21, 1979 in Lancaster, SC

Education:

  • University of South Carolina Law School, 1921

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, World War I

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Lancaster County judge, 1923-1933
  • U.S. Delegate to the United Nations, 1953
  • U.S. Ambassador to the Middle East, 1957-1958


Election Results for James Richards


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1936 41 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 15,748 99.2%
1938 43 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 6,191 99.8%
1940 45 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 33,262 72.3%
1940 45 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 14,754 99.2%
1942 47 SC D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 24,519 72.4%
1942 47 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 3,122 100.0%
1944 49 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 14,435 98.1%
1946 51 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 3,357 100.0%
1948 53 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 14,544 97.1%
1950 55 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 10,648 100.0%
1952 57 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 42,081 93.9%
1954 59 SC D U.S. House District 05 General 1 26,950 100.0%


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



Ideology Data for James Richards


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 42 House 68 17 D 86
1938 43 House 74 5 D 84
1939 44 House 75 9 D 83
1940 45 House 88 2 D 89
1941 46 House 74 7 D 83
1942 47 House 75 10 D 81
1943 48 House 79 4 D 88
1944 49 House 53 7 D 77
1945 50 House 76 14 D 85
1946 51 House 56 30 D 77
1947 52 House 84 13 D 96 83
1948 53 House 89 6 D 81 77
1949 54 House 32 26 D 61 9
1950 55 House 66 16 D 82 47
1951 56 House 57 33 D 86 23
1952 57 House 45 11 D 53 50
1953 58 House 61 24 R 64 72 36
1954 59 House 47 17 R 24 21 53 100
1955 60 House 65 23 R 51 34 88 44
1956 61 House 59 9 R 47 32 77 67


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.