RightDataUSA


Willis Robertson

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 27, 1887 in Martinsburg, WV
Died: November 1, 1971 in Lexington, VA

Education:

  • University of Richmond, 1907, Law School, 1908

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1917-1919

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Commonwealth attorney for Rockbridge County, 1922-1928
  • VA Game Commissioner, 1926-1932

Elected Office:

  • VA Senate, 1916-1922


Election Results for Willis Robertson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1936 49 VA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 24,790 63.9%
1938 51 VA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 11,398 63.9%
1940 53 VA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 26,233 65.1%
1942 55 VA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 7,521 100.0%
1944 57 VA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 24,967 59.9%
1946 59 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 Special 1 169,680 68.2%
1948 61 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 80,340 70.3%
1948 61 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 253,865 65.6%
1954 67 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 244,844 79.9%
1960 73 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 506,169 81.3%
1966 79 VA D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 216,274 49.9%


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



Ideology Data for Willis Robertson


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 50 House 63 32 D 90
1938 51 House 71 26 D 93
1939 52 House 61 32 D 89
1940 53 House 63 30 D 87
1941 54 House 80 15 D 95
1942 55 House 25 70 D 93
1943 56 House 65 31 D 89
1944 57 House 70 23 D 89
1945 58 House 60 28 D 84
1946 59 House 49 36 D 78
1947 60 Senate 49 43 D 91 50
1948 61 Senate 49 40 D 89 47
1949 62 Senate 56 37 D 93 23
1950 63 Senate 59 36 D 86 13
1951 64 Senate 41 47 D 84 18
1952 65 Senate 47 47 D 94 29
1953 66 Senate 38 54 R 85 91 27
1954 67 Senate 43 45 R 61 29 87 15
1955 68 Senate 42 58 R 62 27 92 10
1956 69 Senate 32 59 R 57 34 92 21
1957 70 Senate 42 32 R 39 40 81 0
1958 71 Senate 40 45 R 55 32 85 8
1959 72 Senate 97 0 30 64 R 61 36 95 0
1960 73 Senate 96 0 34 54 R 53 38 84 0
1961 74 Senate 80 2 25 57 D 37 47 85 0 77
1962 75 Senate 88 6 35 50 D 38 52 87 0 93
1963 76 Senate 88 2 29 59 D 23 62 84 6 87
1964 77 Senate 67 10 35 47 D 39 42 65 11 88
1965 78 Senate 77 8 19 64 D 31 51 82 0 100
1966 79 Senate 79 3 31 47 D 38 43 86 6 80
Lifetime conservative rating:   87%


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.