Conservative Republicans Take Washington Seats
By Staff
Vol. 3, No. 1, 1980, p. 14
Nine of the more than thirty new Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will come from the South as a result of the November general election. While maintaining their 24 present House seats among the Southern delegations, Republicans also have gained four U.S. Senate seats from North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
Southern Democrats suffered a hard right swing from voters who aimed their harshest blows at moderate Democratic representatives. One-third of the South’s Democratic representatives whose voting records in any way favored civil rights, civil liberties, labor, and liberal groups was defeated by the conservative Republicans. In all congressional elections where Southern Democratic incumbents were not to return to Congress because of defeat in the primary or retirement, Republicans won. All newly elected congressmen ran on a platform more conservative than their predecessor’s.
Those U.S. Representatives who served in the last Congress and won’t be returning to Washington from the South because of defeat at the polls are listed below with ratings on their voting records from 1978 and 1980 by civil rights, civil liberties, labor, and liberal groups.
| Leadership Conference on Civil Rights | ACLU* | ADA* | COPE* | ||
| 1980 | 1980 | 1978 | 1978 | ||
| ALABAMA | |||||
| John H. Buchanan (R) | 57% | 50% | 30% | 44% | |
| FLORIDA | |||||
| Richard Kelly (R) | 0% | 3% | 5% | 0% | |
| Edward J. Stack (D) + | 100% | 77% | — | — | |
| LOUISIANA | |||||
| Claude Leach (D) + | 14% | 23% | — | — | |
| NORTH CAROLINA | |||||
| Richardson Preyer (D) | 57% | 57% | 55% | 60% | |
| Lamar Gudger (D) | 29% | 27% | 25% | 30% | |
| SOUTH CAROLINA | |||||
| John W. Jenrette (D) | 71% | 33% | 40% | 74% | |
| TEXAS | |||||
| Ray Roberts (D) | 0% | 23% | 15% | 22% | |
| Bob Eckhardt (D) | 86% | 83% | 75% | 89% | |
| Joe Wyatt, Jr. (D) + | 29% | 10% | — | — | |
| VIRGINIA | |||||
| Herbert E. Harris, II (D) | 100% | 80% | 70% | 90% | |
| Joseph L. Fisher (D) | 100% | 87% | 60% | 65% |
| Leadership Conference on Civil Rights | ACLU* | ADA* | COPE* | ||
| 1980 | 1980 | 1978 | 1978 | ||
| ALABAMA | |||||
| Donald Stewart (D) + | 75% | 47% | — | — | |
| FLORIDA | |||||
| Richard Stone (D) | 75% | 37% | 25% | 50% | |
| GEORGIA | |||||
| Herman E. Talmadge (D) | 38% | 20% | 40% | 42% | |
| NORTH CAROLINA | |||||
| Robert Morgan (D) | 38% | 20% | 25% | 35% |
* ACLU is the rating of the American Civil Liberties Union; ADA is Americans for Democratic Action; COPE is the ratings of the AFL-CIO political arm.
+ Not serving in Congress in 1978 session.