Wes Watkins, former Representative for Oklahoma's 3rd Congressional District

Watkins was the representative for Oklahoma’s 3^rd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1997 to 2002.

He was previously the representative for Oklahoma’s 3^rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1977 to 1990.

Photo of Rep. Wes Watkins [R-OK3, 1997-2002]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Watkins is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2002 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 Watkins sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Watkins was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

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Does 5 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 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Watkins sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Taxation (17%) Commerce (17%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Housing and Community Development (12%) Health (11%) Social Welfare (10%) Energy (10%) Law (8%)

Recent Bills

Some of Watkins’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1977 to Nov 2002, Watkins missed 700 of 10,664 roll call votes, which is 6.6%. This is much worse than the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Nov 2002. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1977 Jan-Mar	100	2	2.0%	28^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	20	7.3%	46^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	2	1.0%	13^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	9	6.7%	54^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	16	10.7%	64^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	28	9.3%	62^nd
1978 Jul-Sep	308	22	7.1%	46^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	2	2.6%	28^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	3	4.8%	62^nd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	19	8.6%	66^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	11	5.6%	57^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	20	10.5%	60^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	14	9.5%	58^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	12	6.1%	48^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	24	12.5%	76^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	1	1.5%	4^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	2	2.2%	15^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	2	1.9%	27^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	6	4.2%	42^nd
1982 Feb-Mar	48	4	8.3%	67^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	16	13.4%	85^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	24	12.4%	82^nd
1982 Oct-Dec	99	3	3.0%	26^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	1	2.3%	12^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	14	7.7%	60^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	6	4.6%	60^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	5	3.5%	32^nd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	5	9.4%	67^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	17	7.6%	57^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	4	11.1%	69^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	1	2.8%	19^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	2	1.3%	15^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	5	5.0%	52^nd
1985 Oct-Dec	148	9	6.1%	68^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	2	3.3%	30^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	6	4.7%	65^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	9	4.5%	60^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	1	1.7%	41^st
1987 Jan-Mar	39	3	7.7%	75^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	11	5.9%	65^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	2	2.1%	45^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	11	6.6%	53^rd
1988 Feb-Mar	49	1	2.0%	29^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	6	3.7%	52^nd
1988 Jul-Sep	152	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	57^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	6	5.7%	73^rd
1989 Jul-Sep	128	5	3.9%	68^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	15	12.4%	91^st
1990 Jan-Mar	60	8	13.3%	92^nd
1990 Apr-Jun	150	44	29.3%	98^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	65	35.5%	98^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	9	6.3%	69^th
1997 Jan-Mar	71	1	1.4%	37^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	14	8.0%	90^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	8	3.4%	73^rd
1997 Oct-Nov	163	9	5.5%	81^st
1998 Jan-Mar	89	3	3.4%	60^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	6	3.2%	64^th
1998 Jul-Sep	199	2	1.0%	34^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	3	3.9%	69^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	6	3.3%	67^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	4	2.0%	55^th
1999 Oct-Nov	146	16	11.0%	93^rd
2000 Jan-Mar	95	2	2.1%	40^th
2000 Apr-Jun	277	7	2.5%	49^th
2000 Jul-Sep	130	12	9.2%	91^st
2000 Oct-Dec	101	16	15.8%	80^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	2	2.7%	50^th
2001 Apr-Jun	135	1	0.7%	21^st
2001 Jul-Sep	149	6	4.0%	75^th
2001 Oct-Dec	153	3	2.0%	44^th
2002 Jan-Mar	79	5	6.3%	76^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	28	13.8%	92^nd
2002 Jul-Sep	141	8	5.7%	69^th
2002 Oct-Nov	61	2	3.3%	50^th

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
The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
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
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Wes Watkins

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