RightDataUSA


Paul Wellstone

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 21, 1944 in Washington, DC
Died: October 25, 2002 near Eveleth, MN (plane crash)

Education:

  • University of North Carolina, B.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1969

Career:

  • Political science professor at Carleton College, 1969-1990


Election Results for Paul Wellstone


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1982 37 MN DFL Auditor Primary 1 407,764 100.0%
1982 37 MN DFL Auditor General 2 769,254 45.2%
1990 45 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 226,306 60.4%
1990 45 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 911,999 50.4%
1996 51 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 194,699 86.4%
1996 51 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,098,493 50.3%
2002 57 MN DFL U.S. Senate Class 2 General 4 11,381 0.5%


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



Ideology Data for Paul Wellstone


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
1991 46 Senate 8 88 91 5 R 22 75 98 100 5
1992 47 Senate 8 92 92 5 R 23 75 96 100 0
1993 48 Senate 5 95 94 5 D 91 8 99 100 4
1994 49 Senate 3 97 94 6 D 81 18 98 100 4
1995 50 Senate 7 93 95 5 D 88 12 99 100 4
1996 51 Senate 11 89 92 8 D 85 15 100 95 5
1997 52 Senate 0 100 91 4 D 83 17 96 100 4
1998 53 Senate 0 88 98 1 D 85 13 97 100 4
1999 54 Senate 96 4 95 3 D 84 16 98 95 9
2000 55 Senate 97 3 97 3 D 90 10 98 100 4
2001 56 Senate 99 1 R 57 42 99 100 0
2002 57 Senate 95 0 R 59 30 93 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.