Sen. Howard Baker Jr.

Former Senator from Tennessee

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1967-1984	Senator	Tennessee

Sponsorship Analysis

Baker was a centrist Republican according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Baker’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Baker to other members of the Senate in the 98^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 Baker’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1967 to Oct 1984, Baker missed 1,571 of 8,392 roll call votes, which is 18.7%. This is worse than the median of 6.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1984. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1967 Jan-Mar	53	4	7.5%	38^th
1967 Apr-Jun	68	2	2.9%	25^th
1967 Jul-Sep	74	13	17.6%	69^th
1967 Oct-Dec	106	26	24.5%	81^st
1968 Jan-Mar	67	13	19.4%	75^th
1968 Apr-Jun	95	25	26.3%	69^th
1968 Jul-Sep	85	12	14.1%	50^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	17	63.0%	81^st
1969 Jan-Mar	16	2	12.5%	87^th
1969 Apr-Jun	24	6	25.0%	87^th
1969 Jul-Sep	42	3	7.1%	65^th
1969 Oct-Dec	151	22	14.6%	52^nd
1970 Jan-Mar	99	31	31.3%	87^th
1970 Apr-Jun	91	5	5.5%	30^th
1970 Jul-Sep	120	37	30.8%	78^th
1970 Oct-Dec	105	1	1.0%	4^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	0	0.0%	0^th
1971 Apr-Jun	88	18	20.5%	68^th
1971 Jul-Sep	108	23	21.3%	71^st
1971 Oct-Dec	200	33	16.5%	57^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	24	20.2%	75^th
1972 Apr-Jun	126	48	38.1%	93^rd
1972 Jul-Sep	198	116	58.6%	96^th
1972 Oct-Oct	73	60	82.2%	93^rd
1973 Jan-Mar	67	20	29.9%	86^th
1973 Apr-Jun	192	27	14.1%	80^th
1973 Jul-Sep	164	21	12.8%	74^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	77	45.8%	94^th
1974 Jan-Mar	93	10	10.8%	54^th
1974 Apr-Jun	177	13	7.3%	49^th
1974 Jul-Sep	135	32	23.7%	78^th
1974 Oct-Dec	132	31	23.5%	73^rd
1975 Jan-Mar	116	9	7.8%	64^th
1975 Apr-Jun	140	48	34.3%	95^th
1975 Jul-Sep	167	24	14.4%	83^rd
1975 Oct-Dec	180	27	15.0%	79^th
1976 Jan-Mar	103	9	8.7%	60^th
1976 Apr-Jun	259	61	23.6%	86^th
1976 Jul-Sep	311	85	27.3%	88^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	92	5	5.4%	37^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	27	15.2%	81^st
1977 Jul-Sep	231	8	3.5%	35^th
1977 Oct-Dec	132	5	3.8%	21^st
1978 Jan-Mar	77	9	11.7%	74^th
1978 Apr-Jun	118	25	21.2%	95^th
1978 Jul-Sep	235	63	26.8%	93^rd
1978 Oct-Oct	85	11	12.9%	65^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	5	15.6%	86^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	21	17.4%	87^th
1979 Jul-Sep	170	52	30.6%	97^th
1979 Oct-Dec	184	114	62.0%	99^th
1980 Jan-Mar	67	45	67.2%	97^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	35	16.2%	83^rd
1980 Jul-Sep	177	25	14.1%	84^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	6	7.1%	35^th
1981 Jan-Mar	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	123	3	2.4%	47^th
1981 Jul-Sep	122	1	0.8%	21^st
1981 Oct-Dec	192	6	3.1%	21^st
1982 Feb-Mar	77	3	3.9%	65^th
1982 Apr-Jun	126	11	8.7%	71^st
1982 Jul-Sep	175	6	3.4%	59^th
1982 Oct-Dec	86	1	1.2%	33^rd
1983 Feb-Mar	54	2	3.7%	50^th
1983 Apr-Jun	121	11	9.1%	81^st
1983 Jul-Sep	92	6	6.5%	67^th
1983 Oct-Nov	100	3	3.0%	33^rd
1984 Jan-Mar	45	2	4.4%	40^th
1984 Apr-Jun	144	13	9.0%	67^th
1984 Jul-Sep	68	12	17.6%	89^th
1984 Oct-Oct	35	0	0.0%	0^th

Primary Sources

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

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

Sen. Howard Baker [R-TN, 1967-1984] leaves office as Senator from Tennessee

Oct 12, 1984

Elections and Offices

Sen. Howard Baker [R-TN, 1967-1984] takes office as Senator from Tennessee

Jan 10, 1967