RightDataUSA


Jim Sasser

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 30, 1936 in Memphis, TN

Education:

  • Attended University of Tennessee, 1954-1955
  • Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1958, J.D., 1961

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 1957-1963

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • U.S. Ambassador to People's Republic of China, 1996-1999


Election Results for Jim Sasser


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 39 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 244,930 44.2%
1976 39 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 751,180 52.5%
1982 45 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 511,059 88.9%
1982 45 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 780,113 61.9%
1988 51 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,020,261 65.1%
1994 57 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 402,610 100.0%
1994 57 TN D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 623,164 42.1%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Sasser


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
1977 40 Senate 30 65 74 19 D 75 23 94 60 17
1978 41 Senate 52 38 62 29 D 63 30 90 58 30
1979 42 Senate 55 35 66 19 D 65 21 85 44 17
1980 43 Senate 51 42 70 23 D 67 26 83 67 5
1981 44 Senate 57 29 72 17 R 57 40 91 45 29
1982 45 Senate 62 36 72 25 R 42 55 95 55 44
1983 46 Senate 35 65 85 11 R 39 58 95 75 16
1984 47 Senate 30 62 88 8 R 34 58 95 89 18
1985 48 Senate 52 48 87 13 R 33 67 100 60 24
1986 49 Senate 37 63 87 13 R 24 76 100 70 19
1987 50 Senate 38 63 94 6 R 35 65 99 80 12
1988 51 Senate 38 59 87 11 R 41 56 95 79 9
1989 52 Senate 29 68 89 7 R 55 43 96 85 9
1990 53 Senate 41 59 90 9 R 33 67 99 72 9
1991 54 Senate 40 60 91 9 R 36 64 100 90 5
1992 55 Senate 58 39 85 14 R 35 65 99 95 8
1993 56 Senate 68 32 86 13 D 87 13 99 75 20
1994 57 Senate 69 28 76 23 D 89 10 98 75 22
Lifetime conservative rating:   17%


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.