Sen. Gaylord Nelson

Former Senator for Wisconsin

Nelson was a senator from Wisconsin and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1980.

Bioguide

Photo of Sen. Gaylord Nelson [D-WI, 1963-1980]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Nelson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 1980 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 Nelson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 15, 1975 to Dec 16, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Nelson was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

View All »

Does 12 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

Nelson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (18%) Taxation (17%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (17%) Government Operations and Politics (15%) Commerce (12%) Health (7%) Labor and Employment (7%) Economics and Public Finance (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Nelson 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 Dec 1980, Nelson missed 599 of 7,907 roll call votes, which is 7.6%. This is better than the median of 9.2% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 1980. 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	8	1	12.5%	64^th
1963 Apr-Jun	73	1	1.4%	16^th
1963 Jul-Sep	61	8	13.1%	56^th
1963 Oct-Dec	87	6	6.9%	32^nd
1964 Jan-Mar	60	2	3.3%	28^th
1964 Apr-Jun	138	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	106	4	3.8%	20^th
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	32	9	28.1%	71^st
1965 Apr-Jun	106	9	8.5%	25^th
1965 Jul-Sep	106	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Oct-Oct	15	5	33.3%	58^th
1966 Jan-Mar	28	6	21.4%	60^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	23	41.1%	92^nd
1966 Jul-Sep	119	3	2.5%	12^th
1966 Oct-Oct	35	6	17.1%	44^th
1967 Jan-Mar	53	5	9.4%	34^th
1967 Apr-Jun	70	5	7.1%	31^st
1967 Jul-Sep	81	12	14.8%	52^nd
1967 Oct-Dec	111	17	15.3%	45^th
1968 Jan-Mar	69	9	13.0%	48^th
1968 Apr-Jun	96	16	16.7%	45^th
1968 Jul-Sep	89	10	11.2%	24^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	23	85.2%	76^th
1969 Jan-Mar	17	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	26	2	7.7%	38^th
1969 Jul-Sep	44	4	9.1%	51^st
1969 Oct-Dec	158	14	8.9%	23^rd
1970 Jan-Mar	100	12	12.0%	46^th
1970 Apr-Jun	92	36	39.1%	95^th
1970 Jul-Sep	123	13	10.6%	13^th
1970 Oct-Dec	106	6	5.7%	8^th
1971 Feb-Mar	25	2	8.0%	25^th
1971 Apr-Jun	89	9	10.1%	20^th
1971 Jul-Sep	109	1	0.9%	4^th
1971 Oct-Dec	202	5	2.5%	9^th
1972 Jan-Mar	119	1	0.8%	4^th
1972 Apr-Jun	130	3	2.3%	11^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	2	1.0%	9^th
1972 Oct-Oct	75	1	1.3%	11^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	8	11.9%	52^nd
1973 Apr-Jun	192	6	3.1%	12^th
1973 Jul-Sep	167	1	0.6%	8^th
1973 Oct-Dec	168	34	20.2%	73^rd
1974 Jan-Mar	94	14	14.9%	69^th
1974 Apr-Jun	179	8	4.5%	28^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	8	5.8%	24^th
1974 Oct-Dec	133	5	3.8%	19^th
1975 Jan-Mar	118	1	0.8%	16^th
1975 Apr-Jun	141	4	2.8%	13^th
1975 Jul-Sep	170	19	11.2%	67^th
1975 Oct-Dec	182	7	3.8%	22^nd
1976 Jan-Mar	109	15	13.8%	68^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	12	4.6%	19^th
1976 Jul-Sep	315	18	5.7%	16^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	4	30.8%	52^nd
1977 Jan-Mar	92	1	1.1%	6^th
1977 Apr-Jun	178	6	3.4%	22^nd
1977 Jul-Sep	233	14	6.0%	46^th
1977 Oct-Dec	133	5	3.8%	20^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	3	3.8%	12^th
1978 Apr-Jun	119	5	4.2%	31^st
1978 Jul-Sep	237	6	2.5%	12^th
1978 Oct-Oct	86	3	3.5%	24^th
1979 Feb-Mar	32	1	3.1%	37^th
1979 Apr-Jun	121	19	15.7%	79^th
1979 Jul-Sep	171	16	9.4%	61^st
1979 Oct-Dec	184	7	3.8%	21^st
1980 Jan-Mar	67	2	3.0%	27^th
1980 Apr-Jun	216	22	10.2%	53^rd
1980 Jul-Sep	179	16	8.9%	49^th
1980 Oct-Dec	84	18	21.4%	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
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills