RightDataUSA


Virginia Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 30, 1911 in Randolph, IA
Died: January 23, 2006 in Sun City West, AZ

Education:

  • University of Nebraska, B.A., 1936

Career:

  • Member of USDA committee, 1950-1960
  • U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1972-1974


Election Results for Virginia Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 63 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 15,672 21.3%
1974 63 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 80,992 50.2%
1976 65 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 60,615 74.1%
1976 65 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 150,720 72.9%
1978 67 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 141,597 80.0%
1980 69 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 77,383 99.9%
1980 69 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 182,887 83.9%
1982 71 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 60,108 99.9%
1982 71 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 171,853 99.7%
1984 73 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 65,548 99.9%
1984 73 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 183,901 83.3%
1986 75 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 73,734 99.9%
1986 75 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 136,985 69.8%
1988 77 NE R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 78,715 99.9%
1988 77 NE R U.S. House District 03 General 1 170,302 79.0%


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



Ideology Data for Virginia 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
1975 64 House 94 5 90 8 R 64 31 98 5* 86
1976 65 House 87 6 89 7 R 71 27 91 0 77
1977 66 House 91 7 83 12 D 43 56 96 10 100
1978 67 House 88 6 82 11 D 29 59 91 11 92
1979 68 House 90 7 86 10 D 30 68 97 11 95
1980 69 House 92 8 82 16 D 43 55 97 11 68
1981 70 House 89 11 84 15 R 70 30 99 10 100
1982 71 House 81 19 82 18 R 70 20 99 25 73
1983 72 House 80 20 74 23 R 72 28 98 10 82
1984 73 House 80 20 73 27 R 64 36 100 15 78
1985 74 House 82 18 65 32 R 58 43 97 10 63
1986 75 House 78 16 62 33 R 64 32 94 11 71
1987 76 House 86 12 67 32 R 60 40 99 0 78
1988 77 House 92 8 64 36 R 53 46 99 25 80
1989 78 House 98 2 65 35 R 80 17 98 5 79
1990 79 House 93 6 67 28 R 73 23 95 0 70
Lifetime conservative rating:   82%


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.