Sen. James Fulbright

Former Senator from Arkansas

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1957-1974	Senator	Arkansas
1945-1956	Senator	Arkansas
1943-1944	Representative	Arkansas's 3^rd District

Sponsorship Analysis

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

Use this chart to compare Fulbright to other members of the Senate in the 93^rd 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 Fulbright’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1945 to Dec 1974, Fulbright missed 1,339 of 6,998 roll call votes, which is 19.1%. This is worse than the median of 11.9% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 1974. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1945 Jan-Mar	17	1	5.9%	25^th
1945 Apr-Jun	40	2	5.0%	13^th
1945 Jul-Sep	27	1	3.7%	25^th
1945 Oct-Dec	23	0	0.0%	0^th
1946 Jan-Mar	13	0	0.0%	0^th
1946 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1946 Jul-Aug	46	5	10.9%	75^th
1947 Jan-Mar	34	1	2.9%	38^th
1947 Apr-Jun	56	2	3.6%	63^rd
1947 Jul-Jul	39	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Nov-Dec	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1948 Feb-Mar	28	2	7.1%	67^th
1948 Apr-Jun	74	3	4.1%	78^th
1948 Aug-Aug	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jan-Mar	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Apr-Jun	83	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	79	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	55	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Apr-Jun	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jul-Sep	73	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Dec-Dec	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	20	1	5.0%	50^th
1951 Apr-Jun	64	1	1.6%	58^th
1951 Jul-Sep	90	11	12.2%	83^rd
1951 Oct-Oct	16	4	25.0%	83^rd
1952 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Apr-Jun	94	4	4.3%	58^th
1952 Jul-Jul	6	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jul-Jul	33	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jan-Mar	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	46	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jul-Sep	84	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Dec-Dec	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jan-Mar	26	2	7.7%	61^st
1955 Apr-Jun	36	8	22.2%	96^th
1955 Jul-Aug	23	1	4.3%	52^nd
1956 Jan-Mar	46	2	4.3%	74^th
1956 Apr-Jun	46	5	10.9%	86^th
1956 Jul-Jul	32	3	9.4%	86^th
1957 Jan-Mar	16	2	12.5%	81^st
1957 Apr-Jun	45	8	17.8%	88^th
1957 Jul-Aug	42	4	9.5%	89^th
1958 Feb-Mar	38	2	5.3%	44^th
1958 Apr-Jun	82	3	3.7%	63^rd
1958 Jul-Aug	75	7	9.3%	89^th
1959 Jan-Apr	51	7	13.7%	86^th
1959 May-Aug	127	18	14.2%	92^nd
1959 Sep-Sep	29	2	6.9%	71^st
1960 Jan-Apr	75	4	5.3%	29^th
1960 May-Aug	117	21	17.9%	90^th
1960 Sep-Sep	5	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Jan-Apr	30	7	23.3%	98^th
1961 May-Aug	128	3	2.3%	62^nd
1961 Sep-Sep	33	7	21.2%	90^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Apr-Jun	59	14	23.7%	93^rd
1962 Jul-Sep	114	28	24.6%	93^rd
1962 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	70	3	4.3%	41^st
1963 Jul-Sep	55	5	9.1%	53^rd
1963 Oct-Dec	85	3	3.5%	25^th
1964 Jan-Mar	55	1	1.8%	45^th
1964 Apr-Jun	94	5	5.3%	86^th
1964 Jul-Sep	103	7	6.8%	57^th
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	32	11	34.4%	88^th
1965 Apr-Jun	103	25	24.3%	90^th
1965 Jul-Sep	103	24	23.3%	90^th
1965 Oct-Oct	14	1	7.1%	40^th
1966 Jan-Mar	28	9	32.1%	89^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	4	7.1%	19^th
1966 Jul-Sep	118	22	18.6%	76^th
1966 Oct-Oct	34	6	17.6%	46^th
1967 Jan-Mar	53	11	20.8%	68^th
1967 Apr-Jun	70	12	17.1%	77^th
1967 Jul-Sep	77	13	16.9%	70^th
1967 Oct-Dec	103	30	29.1%	88^th
1968 Jan-Mar	67	21	31.3%	93^rd
1968 Apr-Jun	94	44	46.8%	93^rd
1968 Jul-Sep	81	81	100.0%	98^th
1968 Oct-Oct	26	23	88.5%	85^th
1969 Jan-Mar	17	1	5.9%	56^th
1969 Apr-Jun	24	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jul-Sep	39	7	17.9%	89^th
1969 Oct-Dec	148	42	28.4%	95^th
1970 Jan-Mar	94	18	19.1%	68^th
1970 Apr-Jun	89	16	18.0%	76^th
1970 Jul-Sep	118	24	20.3%	59^th
1970 Oct-Dec	102	31	30.4%	70^th
1971 Feb-Mar	23	6	26.1%	81^st
1971 Apr-Jun	87	26	29.9%	86^th
1971 Jul-Sep	109	9	8.3%	29^th
1971 Oct-Dec	202	21	10.4%	48^th
1972 Jan-Mar	116	33	28.4%	85^th
1972 Apr-Jun	128	24	18.8%	60^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	43	20.9%	77^th
1972 Oct-Oct	75	6	8.0%	40^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	25	37.3%	92^nd
1973 Apr-Jun	184	31	16.8%	82^nd
1973 Jul-Sep	164	19	11.6%	68^th
1973 Oct-Dec	162	57	35.2%	93^rd
1974 Jan-Mar	93	59	63.4%	98^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	133	78.2%	98^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	68	49.3%	95^th
1974 Oct-Dec	132	83	62.9%	97^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. James Fulbright [D-AR, 1957-1974] leaves office as Senator from Arkansas

Dec 20, 1974

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Fulbright [D-AR, 1957-1974] takes office as Senator from Arkansas

Jan 03, 1957

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Fulbright [D-AR, 1957-1974] leaves office as Senator from Arkansas

Jul 27, 1956

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Fulbright [D-AR, 1957-1974] takes office as Senator from Arkansas

Jan 03, 1945

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Fulbright [D-AR, 1957-1974] leaves office as Representative for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district

Dec 19, 1944