RightDataUSA


Mac Thornberry

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 15, 1958 in Clarendon, TX

Education:

  • Texas Tech University, B.A., 1980
  • University of Texas, J.D., 1983

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Rancher
  • Counsel to Rep. Tom Loeffler, 1983-1985
  • Chief of Staff to Rep. Larry Combest, 1985-1988
  • Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State, 1988-1989


Election Results for Mac Thornberry


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1994 35 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 11,568 75.0%
1994 35 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 79,466 55.4%
1996 37 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 27,184 100.0%
1996 37 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 116,098 66.9%
1998 39 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 19,827 93.6%
1998 39 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 81,141 67.9%
2000 41 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 30,867 91.5%
2000 41 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 117,995 67.6%
2002 43 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 35,367 100.0%
2002 43 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 119,401 79.3%
2004 45 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 40,801 100.0%
2004 45 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 189,448 92.3%
2006 47 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 36,477 100.0%
2006 47 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 108,107 74.4%
2008 49 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 56,807 100.0%
2008 49 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 180,078 77.6%
2010 51 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 59,070 100.0%
2010 51 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 113,201 87.0%
2012 53 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 47,051 77.5%
2012 53 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 187,775 91.0%
2014 55 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 45,168 68.2%
2014 55 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 110,842 84.3%
2016 57 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 98,033 100.0%
2016 57 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 199,050 90.0%
2018 59 TX R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 71,018 100.0%
2018 59 TX R U.S. House District 13 General 1 169,027 81.5%


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



Ideology Data for Mac 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
1995 36 House 100 0 99 1 D 17 83 99 0 96
1996 37 House 100 0 97 3 D 35 65 100 0 100
1997 38 House 93 4 94 4 D 32 67 99 5 96
1998 39 House 98 2 92 8 D 23 77 99 5 100
1999 40 House 93 6 D 19 80 98 5 88
2000 41 House 97 3 D 26 74 99 0 88
2001 42 House 99 0 R 95 5 99 0 96
2002 43 House 92 6 R 89 7 98 0 92
2003 44 House 96 2 R 96 4 98 11 92
2004 45 House 98 2 R 97 3 99 0 100
2005 46 House 97 2 R 91 7 99 0 100
2006 47 House 97 3 R 97 3 99 5 88
2007 48 House 93 4 R 84 14 98 5 100
2008 49 House 97 2 R 78 18 99 6 92
2009 50 House 98 2 D 14 86 99 0 100
2010 51 House 98 1 D 27 73 99 0 100
2011 52 House 97 3 D 24 76 99 0 88
2012 53 House 97 3 D 15 85 99 0 96
2013 54 House 97 3 D 12 88 99 0 80
2014 55 House 98 1 D 14 86 99 0 88
2015 56 House 97 3 D 14 86 99 0 83
2016 57 House 96 3 D 9 91 98 0 80
2017 58 House 98 2 R 97 3 99 0 85
2018 59 House 95 3 R 100 0 96 0 72
2019 60 House 93 4 R 96 0 97 0 72
2020 61 House 93 1 R 83 3 92 0 78
Lifetime conservative rating:   90%


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.