RightDataUSA


Homer Thornberry

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 9, 1909 in Austin, TX
Died: December 27, 1995 in Austin, TX

Education:

  • University of Texas, 1932, Law School, 1936

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1946

Career:

  • District attorney, 1941-1942
  • Resigned from Congress to accept Federal judgeship, December, 1963

Elected Office:

  • TX House, 1936-1941
  • Austin city council, 1946-1948

Other notes:

  • Nominated to U.S. Supreme Court in 1968, but withdrew when the vacancy failed to occur


Election Results for Homer Thornberry


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1948 39 TX D U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 23,256 38.4%
1948 39 TX D U.S. House District 10 Primary Runoff 1 33,318 59.9%
1948 39 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 45,007 100.0%
1950 41 TX D U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 40,165 90.6%
1950 41 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 13,703 100.0%
1952 43 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 65,944 100.0%
1954 45 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 23,752 100.0%
1956 47 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 68,697 100.0%
1958 49 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 28,990 100.0%
1960 51 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 75,165 98.1%
1962 53 TX D U.S. House District 10 General 1 43,396 63.3%


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



Ideology Data for Homer Thornberry


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
1949 40 House 82 14 D 92 75
1950 41 House 82 11 D 88 60
1951 42 House 78 12 D 81 54
1952 43 House 70 30 D 99 46
1953 44 House 76 13 R 61 89 64
1954 45 House 93 7 R 58 37 96 67
1955 46 House 87 13 R 73 27 100 80
1956 47 House 25 3 R 26 18 34 0
1957 48 House 66 20 R 48 45 89 38
1958 49 House 84 11 R 58 30 88 70
1959 50 House 82 18 85 15 R 46 54 100 56
1960 51 House 37 63 82 18 R 63 37 100 67
1961 52 House 30 65 93 2 D 95 5 95 90 7
1962 53 House 25 56 81 7 D 78 7 85 63 21
1963 54 House 74 3 D 69 1 97 83 14
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.