RightDataUSA


David Vitter

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 3, 1961 in New Orleans, LA

Education:

  • Harvard University, A.B., 1983
  • Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, B.A., 1985
  • Tulane University, J.D., 1988

Career:

  • Law professor, 1995-1998

Elected Office:

  • LA House, 1992-1999


Election Results for David Vitter


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1999 38 LA R U.S. House District 01 Special Open Primary 2 31,741 21.7%
1999 38 LA R U.S. House District 01 Special 1 61,661 50.7%
2000 39 LA R U.S. House District 01 General 1 191,379 80.5%
2002 41 LA R U.S. House District 01 General 1 147,117 81.5%
2004 43 LA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 943,014 51.0%
2010 49 LA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 715,415 56.6%
2015 54 LA R Governor Open Primary 2 256,300 23.0%
2015 54 LA R Governor General 2 505,940 43.9%


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



Ideology Data for David Vitter


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
1999 38 House 68 6 D 17 61 99 6 83
2000 39 House 92 8 D 26 74 98 0 88
2001 40 House 97 1 R 91 7 96 0 100
2002 41 House 95 1 R 89 11 96 0 100
2003 42 House 97 1 R 95 4 97 10 92
2004 43 House 92 2 R 85 9 92 5 96
2005 44 Senate 91 6 R 87 13 95 15 96
2006 45 Senate 94 6 R 83 13 99 0 92
2007 46 Senate 89 7 R 81 16 95 10 96
2008 47 Senate 98 2 R 72 28 97 5 84
2009 48 Senate 95 4 D 42 56 98 10 100
2010 49 Senate 86 5 D 30 51 90 6 95
2011 50 Senate 89 6 D 36 48 92 5 100
2012 51 Senate 83 11 D 34 50 91 5 80
2013 52 Senate 90 4 D 26 61 91 5 78
2014 53 Senate 82 9 D 45 45 90 5 86
2015 54 Senate 86 3 D 34 41 83 0 95
2016 55 Senate 85 9 D 32 42 88 0 75
Lifetime conservative rating:   91%


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.