RightDataUSA


Ashton Thompson

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 31, 1916 in Ville Platte, LA
Died: July 1, 1965 in Gastonia, NC (automobile accident)

Education:

  • Louisiana State University, 1934

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Air Force, 1942-1946

Career:

  • Auditor for LA highway commission, 1934-1940
  • Chairman of LA employees retirement system, 1947-1953
  • Financial advisor to LA legislature, 1948-1952


Election Results for Ashton Thompson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 36 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 15,881 42.2%
1952 36 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary Runoff 1 21,979 65.2%
1952 36 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 40,811 100.0%
1954 38 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 44,780 68.6%
1954 38 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 21,525 100.0%
1956 40 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 47,343 69.9%
1956 40 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 36,432 100.0%
1958 42 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 10,328 100.0%
1960 44 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 40,963 46.8%
1960 44 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary Runoff 1 40,788 54.2%
1960 44 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 60,007 100.0%
1962 46 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 42,182 55.5%
1962 46 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 33,983 100.0%
1964 48 LA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 38,650 56.7%
1964 48 LA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 38,492 100.0%


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



Ideology Data for Ashton Thompson


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
1953 37 House 66 18 R 34 85 22
1954 38 House 63 13 R 18 37 57 43
1955 39 House 55 35 R 44 39 86 33
1956 40 House 25 6 R 24 24 32 40
1957 41 House 59 20 R 32 57 81 22
1958 42 House 32 5 R 24 32 49 63
1959 43 House 55 0 52 12 R 17 41 52 22
1960 44 House 0 58 27 0 R 9 28 37 71
1961 45 House 26 26 40 7 D 34 14 47 63 33
1962 46 House 12 6 28 4 D 37 5 30 50 45
1963 47 House 27 20 52 7 D 45 10 50 67 30
1964 48 House 33 42 55 8 D 63 8 60 62 18
1965 49 House 28 10 D 32 6 37 20 60
Lifetime conservative rating:   37%


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.