RightDataUSA


James Symington

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 28, 1927 in Rochester, NY

Education:

  • Yale University, B.A., 1950
  • Columbia University, LL.B., 1954

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps, 1945-1946

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant St. Louis city counsel, 1954-1955
  • U.S. Foreign Service in London, 1958-1960
  • Deputy director, Food for Peace, 1961-1962
  • Assistant to U.S. Attorney General, 1962-1963
  • Director, President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency, 1965-1966
  • Chief of protocol, U.S. State Department, 1966-1968

Other notes:

  • Son of Stuart Symington


Election Results for James Symington


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 40 MO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 44,650 69.2%
1968 40 MO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 115,476 53.2%
1970 42 MO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 36,009 100.0%
1970 42 MO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 93,294 57.6%
1972 44 MO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 53,272 100.0%
1972 44 MO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 134,332 63.5%
1974 46 MO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 36,257 71.5%
1974 46 MO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 85,977 61.0%
1976 48 MO D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 3 222,681 25.2%


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



Ideology Data for James Symington


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
1969 41 House 20 78 84 7 R 57 38 93 73 20
1970 42 House 16 66 71 7 R 48 29 76 71 7
1971 43 House 15 77 82 7 R 37 58 85 79 10
1972 44 House 10 73 73 8 R 46 35 80 93 0
1973 45 House 23 72 86 10 R 33 60 90 83 17
1974 46 House 26 52 70 12 R 40 43 83 48* 11
1975 47 House 30 59 74 15 R 39 49 86 79* 12
1976 48 House 21 39 53 7 R 16 45 58 75 7
Lifetime conservative rating:   11%


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.