RightDataUSA


Ray Thornton

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 16, 1928 in Conway, AR
Died: April 13, 2016 in Little Rock, AR

Education:

  • Attended University of Arkansas, 1945-1947
  • Yale University, B.A., 1950
  • Attended University of Texas, 1950-1951
  • University of Arkansas, J.D., 1956

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1951-1954

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • President of Arkansas State University, 1980-1984
  • President of University of Arkansas, 1984-1990
  • AR Supreme Court justice, 1997-2005

Elected Office:

  • AR Attorney General, 1971-1973


Election Results for Ray Thornton


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1970 41 AR D Attorney General General 1 449,507 87.3%
1972 43 AR D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 67,321 50.8%
1972 43 AR D U.S. House District 04 General 1 0 0.0%
1974 45 AR D U.S. House District 04 General 1 0 0.0%
1976 47 AR D U.S. House District 04 General 1 0 0.0%
1978 49 AR D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 3 184,095 31.9%
1990 61 AR D U.S. House District 02 General 1 103,471 60.4%
1992 63 AR D U.S. House District 02 General 1 154,946 74.2%
1994 65 AR D U.S. House District 02 General 1 97,580 57.4%


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



Ideology Data for Ray Thornton


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
1973 44 House 64 35 64 35 R 45 52 97 48 29
1974 45 House 69 25 53 42 R 70 26 93 39 55
1975 46 House 68 31 56 41 R 49 48 95 26* 53
1976 47 House 65 25 55 35 R 45 49 88 28 31
1977 48 House 53 42 69 23 D 62 32 92 30 36
1978 49 House 34 26 69 23 D 41 23 55 27 56
1991 62 House 65 30 84 12 R 35 61 96 42 15
1992 63 House 67 23 85 11 R 34 62 96 85 8
1993 64 House 84 14 86 12 D 84 10 96 50 30
1994 65 House 69 28 91 7 D 88 10 97 74 19
1995 66 House 66 29 73 21 D 71 20 94 80 21
1996 67 House 67 18 72 17 D 81 13 90 73 12
Lifetime conservative rating:   31%


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.