Sen. Joseph McDonald

Former Senator for Indiana

McDonald was a senator from Indiana and was a Democrat. He served from 1875 to 1881.

He was previously the representative for Indiana’s 8^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1849 to 1851.

Bioguide

Photo of Sen. Joseph McDonald [D-IN, 1875-1881]

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Mar 1875 to Mar 1881, McDonald missed 582 of 1,588 roll call votes, which is 36.6%. This is worse than the median of 29.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 1881. 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
Dec 1849-Feb 1850 (House)	108	43	39.8%	75^th
1850 Mar-May (House)	68	17	25.0%	50^th
1850 Jun-Aug (House)	146	49	33.6%	25^th
1850 Sep-Sep (House)	117	53	45.3%	50^th
Dec 1850-Mar 1851 (House)	133	28	21.1%	50^th
Dec 1875-Mar 1876 (Senate)	89	10	11.2%	13^th
1876 Apr-Jul (Senate)	186	132	71.0%	92^nd
1876 Aug-Aug (Senate)	51	26	51.0%	72^nd
Dec 1876-Mar 1877 (Senate)	84	34	40.5%	70^th
1875 Mar-Mar (Senate)	24	15	62.5%	83^rd
1877 Oct-Dec (Senate)	71	6	8.5%	29^th
Dec 1877-Feb 1878 (Senate)	69	11	15.9%	31^st
1878 Mar-May (Senate)	110	34	30.9%	47^th
1878 Jun-Jun (Senate)	83	34	41.0%	72^nd
Dec 1878-Mar 1879 (Senate)	236	90	38.1%	80^th
1877 Mar-Mar (Senate)	15	6	40.0%	74^th
1879 Mar-Jul (Senate)	191	79	41.4%	58^th
Dec 1879-Feb 1880 (Senate)	49	10	20.4%	23^rd
1880 Mar-May (Senate)	127	48	37.8%	50^th
1880 Jun-Jun (Senate)	39	5	12.8%	16^th
Dec 1880-Mar 1881 (Senate)	164	42	25.6%	33^rd

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

Sen. Joseph McDonald

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Voting Record

Missed Votes

Primary Sources