FILE · P000409

The file on

James Knox Polk

President of the United States · Democrat

Born 1795 · Died 1849

Democrat House 1825–1839 President 1845–1849

1,416votes cast in Congress 60.5%attendance in Congress 85.8%party loyalty 42stated positions as president 1term as president

Closed file

Party changes

When James Knox Polk changed parties

Jackson → DemocratListed as Democrat starting with the House term that began September 4, 1837. Their term before that was as a Jackson.No explanation in their own words is on file here yet.

Dates and parties: congress-legislators, checked October 13, 2026. Reasons are shown only in the member's own words from an official record, and are never summarized by us.

The Constitution

Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 — the executive power given to the President
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 — commander in chief, and the power to grant pardons
Article II, Section 3 — the duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed
Article I, Section 1 — all legislative powers are given to Congress
Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 — how members of the House are chosen
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 — the powers of Congress

Latest on record

What they did most recently

The member's own cast, attached to the exact House or Senate roll call.

NOT VOTING · March 3, 1839

Recorded vote

House recorded vote (25th Congress) · 64 yea / 43 nay

NOT VOTING · March 3, 1839

Recorded vote

S. 173 · 81 yea / 49 nay

NOT VOTING · March 3, 1839

Ideology, measured from every vote they cast

DW-NOMINATE first dimension (Voteview, UCLA), shown against the 25th Congress House.

The record

Every roll-call vote on file

Presidential record ↓

Select any row to open that measure's file. The receipt button prints the vote.

The record, in order

Record timeline

March 2, 1849 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Nay — Recorded vote: S. 313 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
February 27, 1849 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Yea — Recorded vote: H.R. 685 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
February 27, 1849 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Nay — Recorded vote: H.R. 685 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
February 22, 1849 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Nay — Recorded vote: H.R. 734 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
December 13, 1848 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Yea — Recorded vote (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
August 2, 1848 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Yea — Recorded vote: H.R. 201 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
July 28, 1848 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Nay — Recorded vote: S. 324 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
July 28, 1848 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Nay — Recorded vote: S. 324 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
February 17, 1848 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Yea — Recorded vote: H.R. 104 (House recorded vote (30th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file
February 26, 1847 · Roll-call votes
Position recorded: Yea — Recorded vote: S. 160 (House recorded vote (29th Congress))
The official record of this vote is the printed Journal of the chamber; no official web page exists for votes of this era. Our file for the vote cites it.
Our file

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Bills sponsored: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Bills cosponsored: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Committee assignments: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Floor remarks (Congressional Record): No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Campaign finance (FEC): No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Lobbyist contribution reports: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Court and ethics records: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.
Presidential documents: No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.

Each entry is a record we hold from an official source, dated and worded as that record states it, with a link to the official government page. Records without an official link are not listed.

Same measure, over time

Recorded positions over time

No official record has been found at this time. We are watching for updates.

Different questions on the same bill can lead to different votes. Read each question before drawing a conclusion.

See the recorded positions side by side

Attendance

Last 96 roll calls

voted / present missed (punched)

The full record

Votes cast by year

Presidential record

Executive orders over their signature

Congressional record ↑

Term 1: March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849 · Democrat

Terms run from inauguration to inauguration, based on the public executive-branch record kept by the unitedstates project — see sources.

Our list of executive orders before 1937 is not complete. We are still adding orders from this era from the American Presidency Project and will show them here as we add them.

Select any row to open that order's file. REVOKED and AMENDED come from the National Archives tables of later actions on orders, which cover January 8, 1937 to January 19, 2017; orders outside that window show no status, which does not mean they were left unchanged.

In the courts

Cases naming the office of president

Federal cases whose caption names the President of the United States as a party and that the record shows before the court while this person held the office. The date on each line is the date of that record, not necessarily the day the case was filed. Being named in an official-capacity case is not a finding about the person, and nothing here says who won. Personal matters are left out entirely.

We have not found a public court record that clearly names this person in their official role, matches the dates they held office, and comes from a court we can follow. That does not mean no case exists. It means we have no qualifying record to show here.

Case records come from each court's own docket and from the United States Courts Opinions collection published by the Government Publishing Office. Select any case to open the official record. Search another politician or see sources and methodology.

Voting records reproduced from the official Journals of the House and Senate (compiled by Voteview, UCLA) · executive orders reproduced from the Federal Register and the National Archives · each measure's file links its official government record · sources & methodology · data as of October 15, 2026