RightDataUSA


Jay Rockefeller

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 18, 1937 in New York City, NY

Education:

  • Harvard University, B.A., 1961

Career:

  • Counsel/assistant director, Peace Corps, 1961-1963
  • VISTA volunteer, 1964-1966
  • President of West Virginia Wesleyan College, 1973-1976

Elected Office:

  • WV House, 1966-1968
  • WV Secretary of State, 1968-1972

Other notes:

  • Nephew of Nelson Rockefeller, son-in-law of Charles Percy


Election Results for Jay Rockefeller


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 31 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 218,050 88.0%
1968 31 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 1 433,142 60.9%
1972 35 WV D Governor Primary 1 262,613 72.2%
1972 35 WV D Governor General 2 350,462 45.3%
1976 39 WV D Governor Primary 1 206,732 49.7%
1976 39 WV D Governor General 1 495,661 66.2%
1980 43 WV D Governor Primary 1 250,550 78.1%
1980 43 WV D Governor General 1 410,863 54.7%
1984 47 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 240,559 66.3%
1984 47 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 374,233 51.8%
1990 53 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 200,161 84.7%
1990 53 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 276,234 68.3%
1996 59 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 280,303 88.4%
1996 59 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 456,526 76.6%
2002 65 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 198,327 89.9%
2002 65 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 275,281 63.1%
2008 71 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 271,425 77.1%
2008 71 WV D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 447,560 63.7%


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



Ideology Data for Jay Rockefeller


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
1985 48 Senate 47 47 83 12 R 31 61 93 63 20
1986 49 Senate 18 80 79 19 R 31 69 98 75 14
1987 50 Senate 28 72 92 6 R 36 60 97 90 8
1988 51 Senate 30 68 88 9 R 49 50 96 70 16
1989 52 Senate 50 50 78 20 R 51 49 99 80 16
1990 53 Senate 41 59 86 13 R 26 73 99 83 13
1991 54 Senate 28 73 91 8 R 36 64 99 90 5
1992 55 Senate 26 68 88 10 R 28 72 98 100 8
1993 56 Senate 37 54 91 6 D 91 4 96 74 12
1994 57 Senate 34 66 86 9 D 92 3 97 95 0
1995 58 Senate 32 65 86 12 D 85 12 97 90 9
1996 59 Senate 29 68 90 6 D 90 7 97 85 16
1997 60 Senate 28 72 83 11 D 79 13 95 78 8
1998 61 Senate 38 38 88 7 D 82 6 93 89 0
1999 62 Senate 94 6 94 6 D 89 11 99 100 4
2000 63 Senate 96 4 94 3 D 97 3 95 89 4
2001 64 Senate 96 3 R 61 34 99 100 12
2002 65 Senate 90 10 R 72 28 99 90 15
2003 66 Senate 96 4 R 50 50 99 100 15
2004 67 Senate 88 12 R 68 32 100 90 12
2005 68 Senate 88 7 R 40 51 92 100 4
2006 69 Senate 51 10 R 30 24 60 92 10
2007 70 Senate 86 8 R 33 66 95 89 8
2008 71 Senate 83 15 R 48 50 97 94 0
2009 72 Senate 89 2 D 76 0 85 94 0
2010 73 Senate 92 3 D 97 3 96 85 8
2011 74 Senate 91 1 D 87 3 90 100 0
2012 75 Senate 90 4 D 89 1 91 90 4
2013 76 Senate 96 2 D 94 0 97 90 0
2014 77 Senate 81 0 D 76 1 80 90 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.