Sen. James Eastland

Former Senator from Mississippi

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	State / District
1961-1978	Senator	Mississippi
1943-1960	Senator	Mississippi
1941-1941	Senator	Mississippi

Sponsorship Analysis

Eastland was a centrist Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Eastland’s time serving in the Senate. Eastland’s bills had a total of 26 cosponsors in the 95^th Congress.

Use this chart to compare Eastland to other members of the Senate in the 95^th Congress on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bills Sponsored

Some of Eastland’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jun 1941 to Oct 1978, Eastland missed 1,699 of 9,581 roll call votes, which is 17.7%. This is worse than the median of 10.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1978. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1941 Apr-Jun	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1941 Jul-Sep	23	0	0.0%	0^th
1943 Jan-Mar	19	9	47.4%	67^th
1943 Apr-Jun	51	4	7.8%	33^rd
1943 Jul-Sep	20	14	70.0%	67^th
1943 Oct-Dec	29	0	0.0%	0^th
1944 Jan-Mar	50	1	2.0%	0^th
1944 Apr-Jun	23	1	4.3%	33^rd
1944 Aug-Sep	7	1	14.3%	33^rd
1944 Nov-Dec	14	10	71.4%	75^th
1945 Jan-Mar	17	1	5.9%	17^th
1945 Apr-Jun	39	4	10.3%	33^rd
1945 Jul-Sep	27	4	14.8%	50^th
1945 Oct-Dec	23	1	4.3%	0^th
1946 Jan-Mar	13	2	15.4%	67^th
1946 Apr-Jun	74	1	1.4%	17^th
1946 Jul-Aug	47	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Jan-Mar	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Apr-Jun	56	6	10.7%	67^th
1947 Jul-Jul	34	3	8.8%	83^rd
1947 Nov-Dec	8	2	25.0%	57^th
1948 Feb-Mar	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1948 Apr-Jun	74	1	1.4%	57^th
1948 Aug-Aug	8	1	12.5%	86^th
1949 Jan-Mar	33	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Apr-Jun	76	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	69	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Oct-Oct	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	50	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Apr-Jun	64	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jul-Sep	58	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Dec-Dec	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	20	4	20.0%	88^th
1951 Apr-Jun	66	2	3.0%	63^rd
1951 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Oct-Oct	16	3	18.8%	75^th
1952 Jan-Mar	11	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Apr-Jun	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jul-Jul	6	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Apr-Jun	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jul-Jul	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	44	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jul-Sep	70	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Dec-Dec	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jan-Mar	26	3	11.5%	69^th
1955 Apr-Jun	37	5	13.5%	92^nd
1955 Jul-Aug	22	1	4.5%	69^th
1956 Jan-Mar	47	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Apr-Jun	45	6	13.3%	92^nd
1956 Jul-Jul	32	3	9.4%	83^rd
1957 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.3%	63^rd
1957 Apr-Jun	43	3	7.0%	69^th
1957 Jul-Aug	46	2	4.3%	71^st
1958 Feb-Mar	37	0	0.0%	0^th
1958 Apr-Jun	82	4	4.9%	65^th
1958 Jul-Aug	72	1	1.4%	47^th
1959 Jan-Apr	54	3	5.6%	86^th
1959 May-Aug	122	13	10.7%	73^rd
1959 Sep-Sep	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 Jan-Apr	66	6	9.1%	41^st
1960 May-Aug	118	10	8.5%	74^th
1960 Sep-Sep	4	4	100.0%	87^th
1961 Jan-Apr	29	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 May-Aug	131	14	10.7%	92^nd
1961 Sep-Sep	30	4	13.3%	77^th
1962 Jan-Mar	20	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Apr-Jun	62	10	16.1%	85^th
1962 Jul-Sep	110	25	22.7%	96^th
1962 Oct-Oct	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	68	9	13.2%	88^th
1963 Jul-Sep	48	10	20.8%	88^th
1963 Oct-Dec	70	16	22.9%	88^th
1964 Jan-Mar	56	2	3.6%	62^nd
1964 Apr-Jun	131	1	0.8%	53^rd
1964 Jul-Sep	103	5	4.9%	41^st
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	32	6	18.8%	59^th
1965 Apr-Jun	105	14	13.3%	69^th
1965 Jul-Sep	103	7	6.8%	63^rd
1965 Oct-Oct	15	2	13.3%	41^st
1966 Jan-Mar	28	5	17.9%	61^st
1966 Apr-Jun	52	7	13.5%	38^th
1966 Jul-Sep	111	12	10.8%	59^th
1966 Oct-Oct	22	22	100.0%	91^st
1967 Jan-Mar	52	17	32.7%	85^th
1967 Apr-Jun	66	7	10.6%	53^rd
1967 Jul-Sep	78	15	19.2%	85^th
1967 Oct-Dec	105	31	29.5%	90^th
1968 Jan-Mar	68	11	16.2%	73^rd
1968 Apr-Jun	87	18	20.7%	70^th
1968 Jul-Sep	88	16	18.2%	63^rd
1968 Oct-Oct	27	12	44.4%	68^th
1969 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	78^th
1969 Apr-Jun	24	1	4.2%	22^nd
1969 Jul-Sep	43	10	23.3%	92^nd
1969 Oct-Dec	154	45	29.2%	96^th
1970 Jan-Mar	99	4	4.0%	29^th
1970 Apr-Jun	89	22	24.7%	90^th
1970 Jul-Sep	120	44	36.7%	84^th
1970 Oct-Dec	104	52	50.0%	92^nd
1971 Feb-Mar	24	9	37.5%	88^th
1971 Apr-Jun	86	7	8.1%	22^nd
1971 Jul-Sep	104	26	25.0%	83^rd
1971 Oct-Dec	200	17	8.5%	34^th
1972 Jan-Mar	113	9	8.0%	34^th
1972 Apr-Jun	122	29	23.8%	69^th
1972 Jul-Sep	204	30	14.7%	64^th
1972 Oct-Oct	69	44	63.8%	88^th
1973 Jan-Mar	67	13	19.4%	73^rd
1973 Apr-Jun	190	37	19.5%	89^th
1973 Jul-Sep	165	28	17.0%	87^th
1973 Oct-Dec	167	39	23.4%	83^rd
1974 Jan-Mar	89	18	20.2%	84^th
1974 Apr-Jun	177	22	12.4%	71^st
1974 Jul-Sep	138	23	16.7%	78^th
1974 Oct-Dec	131	35	26.7%	82^nd
1975 Jan-Mar	116	22	19.0%	91^st
1975 Apr-Jun	140	35	25.0%	88^th
1975 Jul-Sep	165	126	76.4%	99^th
1975 Oct-Dec	180	18	10.0%	56^th
1976 Jan-Mar	103	30	29.1%	88^th
1976 Apr-Jun	263	84	31.9%	91^st
1976 Jul-Sep	313	72	23.0%	85^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	13	100.0%	84^th
1977 Jan-Mar	91	12	13.2%	70^th
1977 Apr-Jun	177	13	7.3%	42^nd
1977 Jul-Sep	233	65	27.9%	94^th
1977 Oct-Dec	132	15	11.4%	58^th
1978 Jan-Mar	78	6	7.7%	42^nd
1978 Apr-Jun	118	33	28.0%	93^rd
1978 Jul-Sep	235	115	48.9%	96^th
1978 Oct-Oct	82	37	45.1%	91^st

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 Eastland [D-MS, 1961-1978] leaves office as Senator from Mississippi

Oct 15, 1978

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Eastland [D-MS, 1961-1978] takes office as Senator from Mississippi

Jan 03, 1961

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Eastland [D-MS, 1961-1978] leaves office as Senator from Mississippi

Sep 01, 1960

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Eastland [D-MS, 1961-1978] takes office as Senator from Mississippi

Jan 06, 1943

Elections and Offices

Sen. James Eastland [D-MS, 1961-1978] leaves office as Senator from Mississippi

Dec 31, 1941