RightDataUSA


Howard Baker

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 12, 1902 in Somerset, KY
Died: January 7, 1964 in Knoxville, TN

Education:

  • University of Tennessee, 1922, Law School, 1924

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Newspaper publisher
  • Scott County board of education, 1931-1932
  • TN circuit Attorney General, 1934-1948
  • VP of Oneida & Western Railroad Co., 1945

Elected Office:

  • TN House, 1929-1930

Other notes:

  • Husband of Irene Baker, father of Howard Baker, Jr.


Election Results for Howard Baker


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1938 36 TN R Governor General 2 83,031 28.3%
1940 38 TN R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 121,790 29.2%
1950 48 TN R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 27,522 66.5%
1950 48 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 38,585 52.2%
1952 50 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 84,977 68.7%
1954 52 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 47,989 58.0%
1956 54 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 90,127 100.0%
1958 56 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 49,420 67.7%
1960 58 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 98,839 100.0%
1962 60 TN R U.S. House District 02 General 1 61,306 70.6%


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



Ideology Data for Howard Baker


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
1951 49 House 75 12 D 84 17
1952 50 House 66 30 D 92 25
1953 51 House 76 21 R 79 92 36
1954 52 House 60 17 R 82 16 82 33
1955 53 House 65 32 R 78 22 95 78
1956 54 House 44 38 R 88 9 89 100
1957 55 House 51 25 R 40 38 78 43
1958 56 House 49 43 R 76 14 94 42
1959 57 House 91 9 52 44 R 57 35 92 56
1960 58 House 32 58 39 53 R 74 19 88 44
1961 59 House 78 13 59 31 D 37 49 87 20 67
1962 60 House 69 31 65 25 D 57 40 88 25 67
1963 61 House 80 13 65 28 D 41 52 92 27 80
Lifetime conservative rating:   71%


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.