RightDataUSA


Thor Tollefson

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 2, 1901 in Perley, MN
Died: December 30, 1982 in Tacoma, WA

Education:

  • University of Washington Law School, 1930

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Pierce County prosecutor, 1938-1946


Election Results for Thor Tollefson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1944 43 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 2 22,217 44.5%
1944 43 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 2 51,119 38.8%
1946 45 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 2 21,314 39.3%
1946 45 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 56,702 53.9%
1948 47 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 49,623 64.0%
1948 47 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 72,988 55.1%
1950 49 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 35,823 51.6%
1950 49 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 71,785 60.5%
1952 51 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 68,501 65.0%
1952 51 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 110,169 59.8%
1954 53 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 43,599 56.4%
1954 53 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 80,241 55.2%
1956 55 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 67,766 52.7%
1956 55 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 108,014 54.0%
1958 57 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 31,306 46.9%
1958 57 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 63,560 53.5%
1960 59 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 52,285 56.9%
1960 59 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 83,158 56.4%
1962 61 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 53,630 75.0%
1962 61 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 79,838 71.1%
1964 63 WA R U.S. House District 06 Open Primary 1 61,102 65.0%
1964 63 WA R U.S. House District 06 General 2 72,702 47.9%


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



Ideology Data for Thor Tollefson


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
1947 46 House 79 13 D 93 50
1948 47 House 69 22 D 95 31
1949 48 House 42 42 D 88 40
1950 49 House 48 44 D 93 69
1951 50 House 39 60 D 97 54
1952 51 House 36 59 D 93 69
1953 52 House 61 32 R 94 95 60
1954 53 House 77 17 R 84 11 92 56
1955 54 House 55 35 R 59 34 88 75
1956 55 House 41 44 R 68 9 84 100
1957 56 House 41 54 R 75 20 95 67
1958 57 House 43 51 R 78 21 87 64
1959 58 House 55 36 52 27 R 54 26 83 63
1960 59 House 47 32 59 33 R 58 40 90 67
1961 60 House 30 52 59 31 D 54 38 93 44 50
1962 61 House 63 37 65 21 D 48 40 87 25 67
1963 62 House 53 27 76 10 D 31 54 86 10 73
1964 63 House 42 19 50 29 D 56 35 82 25 79
Lifetime conservative rating:   69%


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.