Davis was the representative for South Carolina’s 1st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1971 to 1980.
![Photo of Rep. Mendel Davis [D-SC1, 1971-1980]](/static/legislator-photos/403260-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Davis is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives 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 Davis sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Davis was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 6011 (96th): A bill for the relief of William H. Koss.
- H.R. 5867 (96th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to charter the nuclear ship Savannah to Patriots Point Development Authority, an agency of the State of South Carolina.
Does 2 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 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Davis sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Private Legislation (27%) Armed Forces and National Security (16%) Government Operations and Politics (14%) Social Welfare (11%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (8%) Taxation (8%) Education (8%) Agriculture and Food (8%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Davis recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 7501 (96th): A bill to amend section 316 of the Federal Election Campaign Act …
- H.J.Res. 527 (96th): A joint resolution designating the week beginning April 5, 1981, as “National …
- H.R. 6160 (96th): A bill for the relief of Lieutenant General Devol Brett.
- H.R. 6011 (96th): A bill for the relief of William H. Koss.
- H.R. 5866 (96th): A bill to designate certain areas located in the Francis Marion National …
- H.R. 5867 (96th): A bill to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to charter the nuclear …
- H.R. 14412 (95th): A bill for the relief of James D. and Blanche V. Benton.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Apr 1971 to Dec 1980, Davis missed 1,017 of 5,777 roll call votes, which is 17.6%. This is much worse than the median of 8.6% among the lifetime records of representatives 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.
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
