RightDataUSA


Heather Wilson

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 30, 1960 in Keene, NH

Education:

  • U.S. Air Force Academy, B.S., 1982
  • Rhodes Scholar, Oxford Univeristy, M.A., 1984, Ph.D., 1985

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1978-1989

Career:

  • National Security Council director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control, 1989-1991
  • Corporate president, 1991-1995
  • NM Secretary of Children, Youth & Families, 1995-1998



Election Results for Heather Wilson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1998 37 NM R U.S. House District 01 Special Primary 1 18,147 62.5%
1998 37 NM R U.S. House District 01 Special 1 54,853 44.6%
1998 37 NM R U.S. House District 01 General 1 86,784 48.4%
2000 39 NM R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 25,063 100.0%
2000 39 NM R U.S. House District 01 General 1 107,296 50.3%
2002 41 NM R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 30,429 100.0%
2002 41 NM R U.S. House District 01 General 1 95,711 55.3%
2004 43 NM R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 15,690 100.0%
2004 43 NM R U.S. House District 01 General 1 147,372 54.4%
2006 45 NM R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 17,035 100.0%
2006 45 NM R U.S. House District 01 General 1 105,986 50.2%
2008 47 NM R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 55,039 48.7%
2012 51 NM R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 63,631 70.0%
2012 51 NM R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 351,259 45.3%


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




Ideology Data for Heather Wilson


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
1998 37 House 100 0 86 13 D 22 35 99 0 83
1999 38 House 83 16 D 31 69 99 15 68
2000 39 House 85 13 D 38 62 97 11 80
2001 40 House 91 7 R 86 12 99 5 84
2002 41 House 90 10 R 89 11 99 5 84
2003 42 House 90 9 R 89 11 98 20 76
2004 43 House 77 21 R 85 15 98 25 84
2005 44 House 79 17 R 65 30 97 28 78
2006 45 House 83 17 R 87 11 99 25 67
2007 46 House 78 21 R 57 41 98 35 60
2008 47 House 81 7 R 66 27 86 28 86
Lifetime conservative rating:   77%


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.