RightDataUSA


Melvin Watt

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 26, 1945 in Mecklenburg, NC

Education:

  • University of North Carolina, B.S., 1967
  • Yale University, J.D., 1970

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Campaign manager for Senate candidate Harvey Gantt, 1990
  • Nursing home owner

Elected Office:

  • NC Senate, 1985-1987


Election Results for Melvin Watt


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1992 46 NC D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 26,495 47.0%
1992 46 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 127,262 70.4%
1994 48 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 57,655 65.8%
1996 50 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 124,675 71.5%
1998 52 NC D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 12,160 84.2%
1998 52 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 82,305 56.0%
2000 54 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 135,570 64.8%
2002 56 NC D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 33,853 84.7%
2002 56 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 98,821 65.3%
2004 58 NC D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 24,374 85.2%
2004 58 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 154,908 66.8%
2006 60 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 71,345 67.0%
2008 62 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 215,908 71.6%
2010 64 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 103,495 63.9%
2012 66 NC D U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 52,968 80.9%
2012 66 NC D U.S. House District 12 General 1 247,591 79.6%


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



Ideology Data for Melvin Watt


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
1993 47 House 7 93 97 2 D 79 21 99 100 0
1994 48 House 3 94 95 2 D 73 27 98 100 10
1995 49 House 9 90 94 4 D 87 11 98 100 4
1996 50 House 16 82 95 2 D 84 16 98 95 0
1997 51 House 29 71 94 6 D 77 23 99 100 4
1998 52 House 19 81 95 4 D 89 9 98 100 4
1999 53 House 94 5 D 78 22 98 100 0
2000 54 House 91 5 D 74 22 97 94 8
2001 55 House 94 3 R 12 86 99 95 0
2002 56 House 95 3 R 25 75 99 90 4
2003 57 House 97 1 R 13 87 98 100 8
2004 58 House 95 3 R 27 73 96 95 0
2005 59 House 96 2 R 15 83 96 100 0
2006 60 House 96 3 R 18 82 99 95 4
2007 61 House 97 2 R 4 94 99 95 0
2008 62 House 98 1 R 17 83 99 100 0
2009 63 House 98 0 D 96 3 98 100 0
2010 64 House 94 5 D 88 10 99 89 4
2011 65 House 93 4 D 86 13 98 100 4
2012 66 House 93 3 D 86 8 96 100 0
2013 67 House 93 4 D 85 11 95 89 17
Lifetime conservative rating:   3%


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.