RightDataUSA


Wes Watkins

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 15, 1938 in DeQueen, AR

Education:

  • Oklahoma State University, B.S., 1960, M.S., 1961

Military Service:

  • OK Air National Guard, 1960-1967

Career:

  • U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1961-1963
  • Administrator at Oklahoma State University, 1963-1966
  • Business executive

Elected Office:

  • OK Senate, 1975-1976

Other notes:

  • Changed party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 1994
  • Changed party affiliation from Independent to Republican in 1996


Election Results for Wes Watkins


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 37 OK D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 46,550 37.6%
1976 37 OK D U.S. House District 03 Primary Runoff 1 71,428 63.3%
1976 37 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 151,271 82.0%
1978 39 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 0 0.0%
1980 41 OK D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 108,478 90.5%
1980 41 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 0 0.0%
1982 43 OK D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 97,135 85.7%
1982 43 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 121,670 82.2%
1984 45 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 137,964 77.8%
1986 47 OK D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 111,203 85.1%
1986 47 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 114,008 78.1%
1988 49 OK D U.S. House District 03 General 1 0 0.0%
1990 51 OK D Governor Primary 1 175,568 32.3%
1990 51 OK D Governor Primary Runoff 2 236,597 49.3%
1994 55 OK I Governor General 3 233,336 23.5%
1996 57 OK R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 12,740 79.1%
1996 57 OK R U.S. House District 03 General 1 98,526 51.4%
1998 59 OK R U.S. House District 03 General 1 89,832 62.0%
2000 61 OK R U.S. House District 03 General 1 137,826 86.6%


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



Ideology Data for Wes Watkins


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
1977 38 House 89 7 31 67 D 41 53 95 6 70
1978 39 House 85 9 30 62 D 34 62 92 21 86
1979 40 House 92 4 31 63 D 31 66 92 0 86
1980 41 House 75 20 60 35 D 57 37 92 33 53
1981 42 House 89 11 57 43 R 57 43 97 30 33
1982 43 House 74 19 60 33 R 49 45 90 37 45
1983 44 House 79 21 65 32 R 34 63 95 70 36
1984 45 House 78 12 63 31 R 45 48 94 35 48
1985 46 House 67 29 73 22 R 43 56 96 50 42
1986 47 House 66 32 75 22 R 32 67 96 42 41
1987 48 House 67 13 73 20 R 35 63 94 63 17
1988 49 House 87 13 75 23 R 35 64 98 50 44
1989 50 House 90 7 64 31 R 48 49 93 33 50
1990 51 House 74 6 49 23 R 36 40 76 31 58
1997 58 House 95 2 93 3 D 24 68 95 0 96
1998 59 House 95 2 93 6 D 23 73 98 5 92
1999 60 House 93 5 D 20 78 95 0 96
2000 61 House 91 6 D 30 66 94 0 88
2001 62 House 98 1 R 95 5 97 0 96
2002 63 House 96 3 R 86 11 91 5 92
Lifetime conservative rating:   66%


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.