RightDataUSA


George McGovern

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 19, 1922 in Avon, SD
Died: October 21, 2012 in Sioux Falls, SD

Education:

  • Dakota Wesleyan University, 1946
  • Northwestern University, Ph.D., 1953

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Air Corps, 1942-1945

Career:

  • History professor at Dakota Wesleyan University, 1950-1953
  • Food for Peace Program, 1961-1962

Elected Office:

  • Democrat party candidate for President, 1972


Election Results for George McGovern


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1956 33 SD D U.S. House District 01 General 1 116,516 52.4%
1958 35 SD D U.S. House District 01 General 1 107,202 53.4%
1960 37 SD D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 145,261 47.6%
1962 39 SD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 127,458 50.1%
1968 45 SD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 158,961 56.8%
1974 51 SD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 147,929 53.0%
1980 57 SD D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 44,822 62.4%
1980 57 SD D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 129,018 39.4%


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



Ideology Data for George McGovern


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
1957 34 House 83 12 R 58 35 95 63
1958 35 House 84 11 R 76 24 98 100
1959 36 House 18 73 90 4 R 44 50 90 100
1960 37 House 0 89 86 4 R 37 44 88 100
1963 40 Senate 5 88 81 6 D 78 10 89 94 6
1964 41 Senate 6 90 87 10 D 76 18 96 95 6
1965 42 Senate 5 82 77 10 D 74 15 87 94 0
1966 43 Senate 13 81 71 12 D 64 22 86 85 3
1967 44 Senate 13 68 67 16 D 61 27 88 100 31
1968 45 Senate 9 50 48 14 D 38 28 62 67 39
1969 46 Senate 1 94 88 4 R 40 53 89 100 7
1970 47 Senate 4 84 80 5 R 43 44 84 100 0
1971 48 Senate 1 49 48 2 R 13 41 52 100 0
1972 49 Senate 1 26 24 1 R 9 35 22 89 0
1973 50 Senate 2 80 81 3 R 26 64 87 94 4
1974 51 Senate 11 78 80 12 R 31 66 89 76* 19
1975 52 Senate 4 77 76 3 R 30 51 81 100 7
1976 53 Senate 1 64 68 3 R 28 36 69 100 0
1977 54 Senate 2 82 77 5 D 61 22 81 100 10
1978 55 Senate 11 68 76 4 D 68 11 80 84 5
1979 56 Senate 11 78 77 9 D 70 18 88 100 10
1980 57 Senate 7 44 44 7 D 45 15 52 91 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.