Hunter was a senator from Virginia and was a Democrat. He served from 1859 to 1861.
He was previously a senator from Virginia as a Democrat from 1853 to 1859; a senator from Virginia as a Democrat from 1847 to 1853; the representative for Virginia’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 1845 to 1847; the representative for Virginia’s 9th congressional district as most recently an Independent (1841-1843) and previously a Whig (1839-1841) from 1839 to 1843; and the representative for Virginia’s 9th congressional district as a Whig from 1837 to 1839.
Misconduct
Hunter faced an allegation of disloyalty to the Union. On Jul. 11, 1861, the Senate expelled him, 32-10.
| Jul. 11, 1861 | Senate expelled, 32-10 |
![Photo of Sen. Robert Hunter [D-VA, 1859-1861]](/static/legislator-photos/405829-200px.jpeg)
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Dec 1847 to Mar 1861, Hunter missed 752 of 3,544 roll call votes, which is 21.2%. This is on par with the median of 20.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 1861. 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
