May was the representative for Kentucky’s 7th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1935 to 1946.
He was previously the representative for Kentucky’s at-large district as a Democrat from 1933 to 1934; and the representative for Kentucky’s 10th congressional district as a Democrat from 1931 to 1933.
Misconduct
May faced an allegation of war profiteering by accepting bribes to use his official position to secure munitions contracts during World War Two. In 1946, he was defeated in the election. On Jul. 3, 1947, he was convicted. In 1950, he served nine months in prison. In 1952, he was pardoned by President Truman.
| 1946 | Defeated in the election. |
| Jul. 3, 1947 | Convicted. |
| 1950 | Served nine months in prison. |
| 1952 | Pardoned by President Truman. |
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Dec 1931 to Aug 1946, May missed 91 of 1,401 roll call votes, which is 6.5%. This is worse than the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Aug 1946. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- 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
