RightDataUSA


Lamar Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 19, 1947 in San Antonio, TX

Education:

  • Yale University, B.A., 1969
  • Southern Methodist University, J.D., 1975

Career:

  • Intern, U.S. Small Business Administration, 1969-1970
  • Lawyer
  • Business writer, 1970-1972

Elected Office:

  • TX House, 1981-1982
  • Bexar County commissioner, 1982-1985


Election Results for Lamar Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1986 38 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 18,390 31.1%
1986 38 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary Runoff 1 18,140 53.6%
1986 38 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 100,346 60.6%
1988 40 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 203,989 93.2%
1990 42 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 144,570 76.0%
1992 44 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 54,634 100.0%
1992 44 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 190,979 72.2%
1994 46 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 44,600 81.6%
1994 46 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 165,595 90.0%
1996 48 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 77,143 100.0%
1996 48 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 205,830 76.4%
1998 50 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 48,664 100.0%
1998 50 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 165,047 91.4%
2000 52 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 90,924 100.0%
2000 52 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 251,049 75.9%
2002 54 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 49,752 100.0%
2002 54 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 161,836 72.9%
2004 56 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 28,144 100.0%
2004 56 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 209,774 61.5%
2006 58 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 27,166 100.0%
2006 58 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 122,486 60.1%
2008 60 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 64,350 100.0%
2008 60 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 243,471 80.0%
2010 62 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 61,923 81.4%
2010 62 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 162,924 68.9%
2012 64 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 52,404 76.6%
2012 64 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 187,015 60.5%
2014 66 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 40,441 60.4%
2014 66 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 135,660 71.8%
2016 68 TX R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 69,866 60.1%
2016 68 TX R U.S. House District 21 General 1 202,967 57.0%


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



Ideology Data for Lamar Smith


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
1987 39 House 95 2 81 14 R 74 25 96 0 96
1988 40 House 97 0 91 7 R 66 32 98 5 100
1989 41 House 95 2 85 8 R 80 14 94 0 93
1990 42 House 91 6 82 13 R 68 31 95 11 83
1991 43 House 95 5 84 11 R 75 23 95 5 84
1992 44 House 96 2 85 9 R 77 21 94 20 87
1993 45 House 100 0 94 4 D 35 63 98 5 96
1994 46 House 81 6 93 4 D 41 54 97 6 95
1995 47 House 93 2 94 2 D 17 83 97 0 84
1996 48 House 94 2 90 4 D 34 63 95 11 100
1997 49 House 95 5 92 6 D 31 68 97 0 88
1998 50 House 98 0 93 5 D 22 74 98 0 92
1999 51 House 94 2 D 17 76 95 0 84
2000 52 House 98 1 D 30 70 99 5 96
2001 53 House 94 0 R 93 5 95 0 96
2002 54 House 93 3 R 82 11 95 0 96
2003 55 House 96 1 R 100 0 97 5 92
2004 56 House 96 3 R 85 15 98 0 92
2005 57 House 95 2 R 87 13 97 0 96
2006 58 House 94 3 R 95 0 96 0 84
2007 59 House 94 4 R 82 17 98 15 88
2008 60 House 93 5 R 67 29 98 16 88
2009 61 House 83 14 D 23 77 96 5 96
2010 62 House 94 4 D 27 73 98 0 100
2011 63 House 94 5 D 27 71 98 0 83
2012 64 House 95 4 D 17 81 99 0 88
2013 65 House 97 2 D 11 89 99 5 83
2014 66 House 97 1 D 12 85 97 0 84
2015 67 House 97 1 D 8 92 98 0 100
2016 68 House 98 1 D 6 94 98 0 92
2017 69 House 94 1 R 92 3 95 0 96
2018 70 House 92 2 R 96 4 92 0 83
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.