McLaurin was a senator from South Carolina and was a Democrat. He served from 1897 to 1903.
He was previously the representative for South Carolina’s 6th congressional district as a Democrat from 1895 to 1897; the representative for South Carolina’s 6th congressional district as a Democrat from 1893 to 1895; and the representative for South Carolina’s 6th congressional district as a Democrat from 1891 to 1893.
Misconduct
McLaurin had an altercation on February 22, 1902 in which Sen. Tillman accused Sen. McLaurin of treachery, then McLaurin accused Tillman of lying. Tillman then attacked McLaurin physically. After a fight almost broke out again, the Senate censured them both 54-12.
| Feb. 22, 1902 | Senate referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections and both senators were declared in contempt of the Senate and would not be allowed to speak on the floor except at the request of another senator. Another senator did so and both apologized although in such an unpleasant manner the fight almost broke out again |
| Feb. 28, 1902 | Committee on Privileges and Elections recommended that both should receive the same punishment even though Tillman started it. The punishment was censure and the suspension of duties they'd already been experiencing |
| Feb. 28, 1902 | Senate censured 54-12, with 22 senators not voting |
![Photo of Sen. John McLaurin [D-SC, 1897-1903]](/static/legislator-photos/407535-200px.jpeg)
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jun 1897 to Mar 1903, McLaurin missed 308 of 610 roll call votes, which is 50.5%. This is much worse than the median of 31.8% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 1903. 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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
