Sen. James Simmons

Former Senator from Rhode Island, Republican

Simmons, a Republican, was a senator from Rhode Island from 1857 to 1863.

He was previously a senator from Rhode Island (1841-1847; Whig).

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Voting Record

See how presidential campaigns affect voting records.

From Mar 1841 to Jul 1862, Simmons missed 809 of 3,373 roll call votes, which is 24.0%. This is on par with the median of 20.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jul 1862. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1841 Jun-Sep	318	43	13.5%	33^rd
Dec 1841-Mar 1842	44	18	40.9%	25^th
1842 Apr-Jul	197	43	21.8%	33^rd
1842 Aug-Aug	128	34	26.6%	67^th
Dec 1842-Mar 1843	127	69	54.3%	67^th
1841 Mar-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1844 Jan-Feb	28	11	39.3%	25^th
1844 Mar-May	106	26	24.5%	50^th
1844 Jun-Jun	76	25	32.9%	75^th
Dec 1844-Mar 1845	95	15	15.8%	0^th
Dec 1845-Mar 1846	29	8	27.6%	67^th
1846 Apr-Jul	168	33	19.6%	20^th
1846 Aug-Aug	50	10	20.0%	20^th
Dec 1846-Mar 1847	126	21	16.7%	50^th
1845 Mar-Mar	10	1	10.0%	40^th
Dec 1857-Feb 1858	57	8	14.0%	43^rd
1858 Mar-May	217	44	20.3%	47^th
1858 Jun-Jun	121	34	28.1%	63^rd
Dec 1858-Mar 1859	269	50	18.6%	50^th
1857 Mar-Mar	29	4	13.8%	22^nd
1858 Jun-Jun	9	9	100.0%	63^rd
Dec 1859-Feb 1860	43	7	16.3%	46^th
1860 Mar-May	158	51	32.3%	72^nd
1860 Jun-Jun	132	15	11.4%	10^th
Dec 1860-Mar 1861	232	32	13.8%	45^th
1859 Mar-Mar	32	2	6.3%	25^th
1860 Jun-Jun	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1861 Jul-Aug	79	30	38.0%	82^nd
Dec 1861-Feb 1862	73	43	58.9%	88^th
1862 Mar-May	146	62	42.5%	86^th
1862 Jun-Jul	214	58	27.1%	62^nd
1861 Mar-Mar	42	3	7.1%	21^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

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