RightDataUSA


Donald Riegle

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 4, 1938 in Flint, MI

Other notes:

  • Changed party affiliation from Republican to Democrat on February 27, 1973


Election Results for Donald Riegle


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 28 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 12,395 66.4%
1966 28 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 71,166 54.1%
1968 30 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 19,010 100.0%
1968 30 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 104,502 60.7%
1970 32 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 19,719 76.9%
1970 32 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 97,683 69.2%
1972 34 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 13,115 100.0%
1972 34 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 114,656 70.1%
1974 36 MI D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 37,833 81.0%
1974 36 MI D U.S. House District 07 General 1 81,014 64.7%
1976 38 MI D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 325,705 44.3%
1976 38 MI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,831,031 52.5%
1982 44 MI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,728,793 57.7%
1988 50 MI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 2,116,865 60.4%


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



Ideology Data for Donald Riegle


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 29 House 61 37 64 29 D 56 37 93 36 50
1968 30 House 55 37 59 35 D 70 24 94 50 48
1969 31 House 22 62 33 55 R 49 43 88 71 29
1970 32 House 16 72 29 53 R 63 23 82 76 18
1971 33 House 14 76 26 58 R 32 54 84 86 11
1972 34 House 4 76 10 71 R 38 35 78 100 0
1973 35 House 5 72 73 10 R 25 62 80 95 27
1974 36 House 5 82 72 15 R 31 58 85 100 5
1975 37 House 9 76 77 9 R 26 61 82 95 10
1976 38 House 3 27 29 2 R 10 47 29 92 6
1977 39 Senate 4 84 75 11 D 60 25 86 89 11
1978 40 Senate 8 82 86 5 D 74 17 93 85 8
1979 41 Senate 10 79 84 10 D 83 15 94 94 6
1980 42 Senate 12 83 81 15 D 68 26 97 94 0
1981 43 Senate 7 87 88 4 R 34 60 93 95 13
1982 44 Senate 4 86 89 3 R 24 66 92 95 22
1983 45 Senate 14 86 93 4 R 34 64 96 90 4
1984 46 Senate 2 98 92 6 R 31 68 97 100 5
1985 47 Senate 22 75 87 10 R 24 74 98 95 5
1986 48 Senate 5 95 96 4 R 18 82 99 95 10
1987 49 Senate 19 78 92 6 R 35 64 97 100 4
1988 50 Senate 24 73 94 3 R 41 57 97 90 4
1989 51 Senate 13 84 93 5 R 45 54 96 94 13
1990 52 Senate 27 70 85 12 R 30 63 95 83 9
1991 53 Senate 28 73 93 7 R 33 67 99 90 14
1992 54 Senate 24 68 83 8 R 28 68 94 100 4
1993 55 Senate 22 73 93 4 D 87 7 97 89 8
1994 56 Senate 16 72 90 5 D 94 3 95 95 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   11%


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.