Rep. Harold Ford

Former Representative from Tennessee's 9^th District

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1983-1996	Representative	Tennessee's 9^th District
1975-1982	Representative	Tennessee's 8^th District

Sponsorship Analysis

Ford was a moderate Democratic follower according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Ford’s time serving in the House of Representatives.

Use this chart to compare Ford to other members of the House of Representatives in the 104^th Congress on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Some of Ford’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1975 to Sep 1996, Ford missed 2,211 of 11,830 roll call votes, which is 18.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1975 Jan-Mar	68	6	8.8%	73^rd
1975 Apr-Jun	197	22	11.2%	76^th
1975 Jul-Sep	146	14	9.6%	73^rd
1975 Oct-Dec	188	13	6.9%	66^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	20	18.9%	90^th
1976 Apr-Jun	266	19	7.1%	42^nd
1976 Jul-Sep	272	81	29.8%	92^nd
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	3	3.0%	33^rd
1977 Apr-Jun	271	7	2.6%	26^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	2	1.0%	9^th
1977 Oct-Dec	127	14	11.0%	78^th
1978 Jan-Mar	149	9	6.0%	45^th
1978 Apr-Jun	298	61	20.5%	80^th
1978 Jul-Sep	307	46	15.0%	78^th
1978 Oct-Oct	75	6	8.0%	61^st
1979 Jan-Mar	63	2	3.2%	56^th
1979 Apr-Jun	217	15	6.9%	59^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	22	11.1%	77^th
1979 Oct-Dec	188	27	14.4%	74^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	12	8.1%	49^th
1980 Apr-Jun	193	15	7.8%	50^th
1980 Jul-Sep	187	58	31.0%	97^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	17	25.4%	79^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	88	5	5.7%	52^nd
1981 Jul-Sep	104	5	4.8%	57^th
1981 Oct-Dec	139	17	12.2%	80^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	9	18.8%	80^th
1982 Apr-Jun	116	8	6.9%	74^th
1982 Jul-Sep	186	42	22.6%	95^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	15	15.2%	77^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	1	2.3%	17^th
1983 Apr-Jun	179	24	13.4%	84^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	22	16.9%	96^th
1983 Oct-Nov	142	34	23.9%	97^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	3	5.7%	52^nd
1984 Apr-Jun	222	33	14.9%	88^th
1984 Jul-Sep	95	16	16.8%	91^st
1984 Oct-Oct	36	3	8.3%	57^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	1	2.8%	22^nd
1985 Apr-Jun	154	20	13.0%	92^nd
1985 Jul-Sep	101	11	10.9%	86^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	12	8.1%	80^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	7	11.5%	74^th
1986 Apr-Jun	124	21	16.9%	97^th
1986 Jul-Sep	198	58	29.3%	98^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	7	11.7%	79^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	3	7.7%	72^nd
1987 Apr-Jun	176	100	56.8%	98^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	32	33.7%	98^th
1987 Oct-Dec	166	53	31.9%	98^th
1988 Feb-Mar	48	22	45.8%	98^th
1988 Apr-Jun	159	40	25.2%	97^th
1988 Jul-Sep	150	46	30.7%	97^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	22	24.7%	96^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	54^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	14	13.3%	93^rd
1989 Jul-Sep	126	15	11.9%	97^th
1989 Oct-Nov	120	26	21.7%	99^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	43	71.7%	100^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	48	32.0%	99^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	90	49.2%	100^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	25	17.5%	96^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	22	35.5%	99^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	27	19.4%	98^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	13	16.0%	92^nd
1991 Oct-Nov	162	45	27.8%	100^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	7	10.6%	85^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	30	16.2%	95^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	76	38.8%	98^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	3	7.3%	65^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	115	90.6%	100^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	39	20.5%	99^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	19	11.6%	96^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	17	12.7%	96^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	26	27.4%	98^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	43	19.6%	99^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	35	24.6%	99^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	10	19.6%	97^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	13	4.7%	85^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	17	9.0%	89^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	36	15.5%	97^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	27	14.6%	97^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	16	14.5%	92^nd
1996 Apr-Jun	182	51	28.0%	98^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	79	48.5%	99^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Rep. Harold Ford [D-TN9, 1983-1996] leaves office as Representative for Tennessee's 9th congressional district

Oct 04, 1996

Elections and Offices

Rep. Harold Ford [D-TN9, 1983-1996] takes office as Representative for Tennessee's 9th congressional district

Jan 03, 1983

Elections and Offices

Rep. Harold Ford [D-TN9, 1983-1996] leaves office as Representative for Tennessee's 8th congressional district

Dec 23, 1982

Elections and Offices

Rep. Harold Ford [D-TN9, 1983-1996] takes office as Representative for Tennessee's 8th congressional district

Jan 14, 1975