RightDataUSA


James Sensenbrenner

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 14, 1943 in Chicago, IL

Education:

  • Stanford University, A.B., 1965
  • University of Wisconsin, J.D., 1968

Career:

  • Assistant to CA Rep. Arthur Younger, 1965
  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • WI Assembly, 1969-1975
  • WI Senate, 1975-1979


Election Results for James Sensenbrenner


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 35 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 29,584 43.3%
1978 35 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 118,386 61.1%
1980 37 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 52,385 100.0%
1980 37 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 206,227 78.4%
1982 39 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 43,693 100.0%
1982 39 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 111,503 99.9%
1984 41 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 32,848 100.0%
1984 41 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 180,247 73.4%
1986 43 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 37,099 100.0%
1986 43 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 138,766 78.2%
1988 45 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 52,176 100.0%
1988 45 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 185,093 74.9%
1990 47 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 24,414 100.0%
1990 47 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 117,967 99.7%
1992 49 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 34,065 100.0%
1992 49 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 192,898 69.7%
1994 51 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 46,698 100.0%
1994 51 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 141,617 99.8%
1996 53 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 38,399 99.7%
1996 53 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 197,910 74.4%
1998 55 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 31,917 99.8%
1998 55 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 175,533 91.3%
2000 57 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 20,295 99.6%
2000 57 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 239,498 74.0%
2002 59 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 40,235 99.8%
2002 59 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 191,224 86.1%
2004 61 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 76,179 100.0%
2004 61 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 271,153 66.6%
2006 63 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 46,686 100.0%
2006 63 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 194,669 61.8%
2008 65 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 47,144 78.3%
2008 65 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 275,271 79.6%
2010 67 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 119,713 100.0%
2010 67 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 229,642 69.3%
2012 69 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 89,370 99.4%
2012 69 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 250,335 67.7%
2014 71 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 43,266 99.8%
2014 71 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 231,160 69.5%
2016 73 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 34,203 99.7%
2016 73 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 260,706 66.7%
2018 75 WI R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 73,397 81.2%
2018 75 WI R U.S. House District 05 General 1 225,619 61.9%


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



Ideology Data for James Sensenbrenner


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
1979 36 House 88 11 91 8 D 28 72 99 17 97
1980 37 House 87 13 94 5 D 32 68 98 22 89
1981 38 House 75 24 77 21 R 59 41 99 20 100
1982 39 House 70 30 84 16 R 60 36 99 25 86
1983 40 House 74 25 85 14 R 70 30 99 10 82
1984 41 House 44 12 56 9 R 45 20 66 7 80
1985 42 House 69 31 87 11 R 68 33 98 20 74
1986 43 House 80 20 89 11 R 73 27 99 10 77
1987 44 House 77 21 92 6 R 68 31 98 8 91
1988 45 House 87 13 92 8 R 68 30 99 15 88
1989 46 House 78 22 88 12 R 66 34 98 20 71
1990 47 House 80 20 93 6 R 75 25 99 6 83
1991 48 House 86 14 87 11 R 66 33 99 20 90
1992 49 House 65 35 90 9 R 69 30 99 17 91
1993 50 House 61 39 90 10 D 20 80 100 20 92
1994 51 House 69 31 96 4 D 21 79 100 21 76
1995 52 House 68 32 89 11 D 29 71 99 5 80
1996 53 House 61 39 85 15 D 37 63 100 20 100
1997 54 House 71 29 85 12 D 32 68 98 20 88
1998 55 House 69 31 84 14 D 22 78 99 5 92
1999 56 House 93 7 D 28 72 100 10 96
2000 57 House 88 9 D 18 80 98 21 88
2001 58 House 90 8 R 77 23 99 10 96
2002 59 House 93 6 R 89 11 99 0 92
2003 60 House 91 9 R 82 18 99 25 84
2004 61 House 94 6 R 79 21 100 20 92
2005 62 House 91 7 R 78 15 99 0 96
2006 63 House 90 8 R 79 13 97 10 83
2007 64 House 96 4 R 90 9 99 0 96
2008 65 House 93 2 R 78 18 96 10 96
2009 66 House 98 2 D 16 84 100 0 100
2010 67 House 98 2 D 24 76 99 0 100
2011 68 House 93 7 D 20 80 99 5 92
2012 69 House 91 7 D 22 75 100 16 96
2013 70 House 91 6 D 16 83 98 5 96
2014 71 House 95 5 D 8 92 99 15 100
2015 72 House 93 7 D 15 85 100 5 96
2016 73 House 98 2 D 9 91 100 0 100
2017 74 House 96 3 R 92 8 99 0 100
2018 75 House 94 5 R 78 22 97 8 96
2019 76 House 85 4 R 88 8 85 0 93
2020 77 House 76 2 R 64 8 77 6 89
Lifetime conservative rating:   91%


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.