Donald Fraser, former Representative for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District

Fraser was the representative for Minnesota’s 5^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1978.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Fraser is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1978 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Fraser sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1973 to Oct 15, 1978. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Fraser was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

View All »

Does 13 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Fraser sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Social Welfare (18%) International Affairs (18%) Energy (13%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (11%) Health (9%) Taxation (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Fraser recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1963 to Oct 1978, Fraser missed 1,033 of 6,086 roll call votes, which is 17.0%. This is much worse than the median of 8.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1978. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1963 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	2	6.5%	86^th
1963 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	1	2.0%	49^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	1	3.6%	30^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	11	20.8%	84^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	6	6.1%	46^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	24^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	1	3.3%	23^rd
1966 Apr-Jun	51	19	37.3%	90^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	9	12.5%	48^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	4	10.0%	35^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	1	3.2%	51^st
1967 Apr-Jun	57	4	7.0%	90^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	1	1.0%	25^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	26^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	1	4.0%	34^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	53^rd
1969 Jul-Sep	45	9	20.0%	83^rd
1969 Oct-Dec	88	4	4.5%	23^rd
1970 Jan-Mar	35	10	28.6%	85^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	20	27.0%	81^st
1970 Jul-Sep	76	20	26.3%	81^st
1970 Oct-Dec	81	7	8.6%	26^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	6	27.3%	89^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	9	10.0%	36^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	5	6.8%	43^rd
1971 Oct-Dec	134	10	7.5%	34^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	10	15.6%	73^rd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	26	22.8%	78^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	8	7.9%	46^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	1	2.0%	17^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	2	5.6%	38^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	40	20.9%	88^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	11	8.4%	66^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	11	6.0%	43^rd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	23	29.1%	96^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	27	15.9%	75^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	5	3.4%	29^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	12	8.5%	45^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	17	25.0%	95^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	16	8.0%	61^st
1975 Jul-Sep	154	39	25.3%	96^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	135	70.7%	99^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	20	18.9%	90^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	36	13.5%	69^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	4	1.4%	13^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	10	10.0%	71^st
1977 Apr-Jun	273	61	22.3%	92^nd
1977 Jul-Sep	198	26	13.1%	76^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	19	14.1%	78^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	42	28.0%	94^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	108	36.0%	93^rd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	150	48.7%	95^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	8	10.5%	66^th

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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Donald Fraser

Links

Follow GovTrack on social media for more updates:

On GovTrack Insider:

I have an opinion I want to share.

I need help, have a question, or want to schedule a tour.