Clingman was a senator from North Carolina and was a Democrat. He served from 1858 to 1861.
He was previously the representative for North Carolina’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 1855 to 1857; the representative for North Carolina’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 1853 to 1855; the representative for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Whig from 1851 to 1853; the representative for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Whig from 1849 to 1851; the representative for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Whig from 1847 to 1849; and the representative for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district as a Whig from 1843 to 1845.
Misconduct
Clingman 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. Thomas Clingman [D-NC, 1858-1861]](/static/legislator-photos/402658-200px.jpeg)
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1858 to Mar 1861, Clingman missed 229 of 1,081 roll call votes, which is 21.2%. This is on par with the median of 21.9% 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
