RightDataUSA


Mike Synar

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 17, 1950 in Vinita, OK
Died: January 9, 1996 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • University of Oklahoma, B.A., 1972, J.D., 1977
  • Attended Edinburgh University School of Economics, 1973
  • Northwestern University, M.S., 1974

Career:

  • Rancher
  • Real estate broker
  • Lawyer


Election Results for Mike Synar


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 27 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 58,397 53.6%
1978 27 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 72,583 54.8%
1980 29 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 101,516 54.0%
1982 31 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 111,895 72.6%
1984 33 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 87,363 88.4%
1984 33 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 148,124 74.1%
1986 35 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 89,145 84.3%
1986 35 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 114,543 73.3%
1988 37 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 62,936 69.5%
1988 37 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 136,009 64.9%
1990 39 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 63,584 55.9%
1990 39 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 90,820 61.3%
1992 41 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 47,562 43.2%
1992 41 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary Runoff 1 56,662 53.1%
1992 41 OK D U.S. House District 02 General 1 118,542 55.5%
1994 43 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 45,163 47.2%
1994 43 OK D U.S. House District 02 Primary Runoff 2 45,189 48.6%


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



Ideology Data for Mike Synar


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 28 House 54 44 70 26 D 66 30 94 58 36
1980 29 House 38 62 84 15 D 72 26 98 65 21
1981 30 House 27 72 90 10 R 37 61 98 75 25
1982 31 House 44 52 79 17 R 43 55 96 58 26
1983 32 House 43 55 85 12 R 33 66 97 80 18
1984 33 House 36 53 80 13 R 44 51 92 84 18
1985 34 House 33 65 88 10 R 25 75 98 79 16
1986 35 House 24 70 83 11 R 24 71 94 75 14
1987 36 House 23 74 90 7 R 21 76 97 84 13
1988 37 House 13 87 93 5 R 26 73 99 100 0
1989 38 House 24 76 92 6 R 28 71 98 85 4
1990 39 House 13 85 93 4 R 17 82 97 94 8
1991 40 House 19 78 93 5 R 28 70 98 90 0
1992 41 House 21 77 91 7 R 18 78 97 95 0
1993 42 House 11 80 86 7 D 75 19 92 89 9
1994 43 House 6 86 92 3 D 72 21 93 94 10
Lifetime conservative rating:   14%


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.