RightDataUSA


John Tower

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 29, 1925 in Houston, TX
Died: April 5, 1991 near Brusnwick, GA (plane crash)

Education:

  • Southwestern University, 1948
  • Southern Methodist University, 1953
  • Attended London School of Economics and Political Science

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1943-1948

Career:

  • Midwestern University faculty member, 1951-1960
  • Appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1989 by President Bush but not confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate


Election Results for John Tower


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1960 34 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 926,653 41.1%
1961 35 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 Special Open Primary 1 327,308 31.7%
1961 35 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 Special 1 448,217 50.6%
1966 40 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 842,501 56.4%
1972 46 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,822,877 53.4%
1978 52 TX R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,151,376 49.8%


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



Ideology Data for John Tower


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
1961 35 Senate 77 8 85 4 D 24 65 85 0 100
1962 36 Senate 65 0 58 2 D 18 43 71 0 93
1963 37 Senate 81 0 74 4 D 15 65 78 0 100
1964 38 Senate 75 0 70 6 D 31 49 68 0 100
1965 39 Senate 87 7 85 5 D 26 55 84 0 100
1966 40 Senate 77 0 64 6 D 28 42 69 5 86
1967 41 Senate 48 0 39 6 D 35 22 53 0 86
1968 42 Senate 61 3 59 7 D 24 42 63 0 84
1969 43 Senate 84 3 80 8 R 69 15 78 0 86
1970 44 Senate 56 1 52 5 R 47 9 55 5 91
1971 45 Senate 81 1 74 6 R 68 12 78 0 100
1972 46 Senate 65 3 67 6 R 72 4 66 5 75
1973 47 Senate 93 3 87 5 R 75 14 89 0 91
1974 48 Senate 90 2 85 6 R 71 19 90 5* 93
1975 49 Senate 95 2 92 5 R 85 11 95 11 88
1976 50 Senate 90 3 91 2 R 75 15 91 5 85
1977 51 Senate 95 2 83 7 D 40 53 89 16 97
1978 52 Senate 70 3 73 3 D 15 62 69 13 91
1979 53 Senate 76 10 78 14 D 39 55 93 11 84
1980 54 Senate 70 2 61 11 D 36 46 79 8 84
1981 55 Senate 87 1 83 4 R 76 9 84 10 80
1982 56 Senate 91 6 86 11 R 80 15 95 11 78
1983 57 Senate 73 14 77 12 R 86 11 89 17 50
1984 58 Senate 85 2 88 4 R 86 0 85 11 82
Lifetime conservative rating:   87%


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.