50 Fun Facts About US Senate

Since 1965, what has one Republican senator kept in a desk drawer by the Senate chamber's entrance?

Candy has filled the drawer ever since California's George Murphy began sharing his stash with colleagues, even though eating is banned on the Senate floor.

The name of the US Senate traces back to the Latin word 'senex', which means what?

Old man is the meaning of 'senex', the root that Rome's council of elders shares with the English words senior and senile.

Which piece of Senate jargon comes from a Dutch word once used for pirates raiding the Caribbean?

Filibuster comes from the Dutch for 'freebooter' and began turning up in American legislative debates in the 1850s as a label for talking a bill to death.

Which South Carolina senator spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957?

Strom Thurmond's solo stand remained the Senate's longest speech until 2025. He later became the only member of Congress to turn 100 while in office.

Which future president won a Delaware Senate seat in 1972 at age 29, too young to take office yet?

Joe Biden turned 30, the Constitution's minimum age for a senator, less than two weeks after election day and well before he was sworn in.

Which dish is on the Senate restaurant's menu every day, a tradition dating to the early 1900s?

Bean soup became a daily fixture because one senator insisted on it, though rival stories credit either Idaho's Fred Dubois or Minnesota's Knute Nelson.

Which president, impeached in 1868, became the only former president to later serve in the Senate?

Andrew Johnson won a Tennessee seat in 1875, six years after leaving the White House, but died just five months into his term.

Which Ohio senator, the first American to orbit Earth, flew on the Space Shuttle at age 77?

John Glenn was still a sitting senator when he rode Discovery in 1998, 36 years after his Mercury flight, and became the oldest person to fly in space at that time.

Which official chairs the Senate under the Constitution but may vote only to break a tie?

The vice president doubles as president of the Senate, a job its first holder, John Adams, called 'the most insignificant office' ever contrived.

Who is the only First Lady to win a Senate seat, sworn in while her husband was still president?

Hillary Clinton took her oath 17 days before her husband's presidency ended, so for a short spell she was a senator and First Lady at the same time.

Before a 1913 constitutional amendment, which bodies rather than voters chose US senators?

State legislatures sometimes deadlocked so badly that seats stayed empty, and one Indiana vacancy in the 1850s lasted two years. Such stalemates helped build support for direct elections.

Which 1787 deal gave every state equal votes in the Senate while basing House seats on population?

The Connecticut Compromise, also called the Great Compromise, grew from a two-chamber plan put forward by the state's delegate Roger Sherman.

Which Senate procedure, created by Rule 22 in 1917, lets 60 senators end debate and force a vote?

Cloture was adopted at President Woodrow Wilson's urging and at first needed a two-thirds vote. Senators lowered the bar to three-fifths in 1975.

Which official must preside when a sitting president is tried in the Senate after impeachment?

The chief justice who presided in 1999, William Rehnquist, later summed up his role: 'I did nothing in particular, and I did it very well.'

Which peace deal did the Senate reject in 1919, keeping America out of the League of Nations?

The Treaty of Versailles was the first peace treaty the Senate had ever rejected, so the United States later made a separate peace with Germany.

Which Senate committee holds the televised hearings that question nominees for the Supreme Court?

The Judiciary Committee's 1987 fight over nominee Robert Bork gave English a new verb: the Oxford English Dictionary added 'bork' in 2002.

Which word names the minimum of 51 senators who must be present for the Senate to do business?

A quorum is always presumed to be present unless a senator asks for the roll to be called, so business can carry on in a nearly empty chamber.

Which Senate leadership title comes from the fox-hunting rider who keeps the hounds from straying?

Whip is short for 'whipper-in', a hunting term used in Britain's Parliament by 1828. In the Senate the job is rounding up a party's votes.

What are the three groups of Senate seats that take turns facing election every two years called?

Classes were first drawn by lot in May 1789, and each new state's two seats still go into different groups by a random draw.

Which Senate officer can be ordered to track down absent senators and bring them to the chamber?

The sergeant at arms was sent after missing members in 1988, and Oregon's Bob Packwood ended up being carried into the chamber feet first.

Which Mississippi minister became the first African American senator when he took his seat in 1870?

Hiram Revels had helped raise two regiments of Black soldiers and served as an army chaplain during the Civil War.

Which Georgian, sworn in at 87, became the first woman in the Senate yet served only one day?

Rebecca Felton's seat really belonged to Walter George, who had already won the election but let her be sworn in first.

Which Kentucky senator, known as the Great Compromiser, ran for president three times and never won?

Henry Clay earned the nickname by brokering deals over slavery in 1820 and again in 1850 that each put off a national crisis.

Which Massachusetts senator ended a famous 1830 speech with 'Liberty and Union, now and for ever'?

Daniel Webster was answering South Carolina's Robert Hayne, who had argued that states could nullify federal law. The reply was reprinted thousands of times.

Which Illinois senator, the Little Giant, kept his seat by beating Abraham Lincoln in 1858?

Stephen A. Douglas stood just 5 feet 4 inches tall, and two years later the same pair faced off again for the presidency, with Lincoln coming out on top.

Which Mississippi senator called it 'the saddest day of his life' when he resigned his seat in 1861?

Jefferson Davis left because Mississippi had seceded, and within weeks he was chosen as president of the Confederacy.

Which antislavery senator from Massachusetts was beaten with a cane at his Senate desk in 1856?

Charles Sumner needed three years to recover, and Massachusetts refused to replace him, leaving his empty desk as a public reminder of the attack.

Which former president of the Republic of Texas went on to be one of the state's first two senators?

Sam Houston is also the only person elected governor of two different states: Tennessee before his Texas years, and Texas after he left the Senate.

In which city did the Senate first meet in 1789, in a room upstairs at Federal Hall?

New York also saw George Washington inaugurated at the same building weeks later, but Congress had moved to Philadelphia before its first two-year term ended.

Which material was the Senate's hourglass-shaped gavel, retired after it began coming apart in 1954?

Ivory proved fragile with age, so the presiding officer of India's upper house came that November to present the Senate with a replacement gavel.

Which Wisconsin senator did the Senate censure in 1954 after years of hunting alleged communists?

Joseph McCarthy's fall began on live television, when army lawyer Joseph Welch asked him: 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'

Which Louisiana senator, known as the Kingfish, was shot inside his state's capitol in 1935?

Huey Long took the nickname from a character on the radio comedy Amos 'n' Andy and was preparing a 1936 run for president when he was killed.

Which Missouri senator became famous for investigating waste in World War II defense contracts?

Harry S. Truman's committee is credited with saving an estimated $10–15 billion, several times the cost of the entire Manhattan Project.

Which North Carolina senator, a self-styled 'country lawyer', chaired the Senate Watergate hearings?

Sam Ervin gained lasting fame from the hearings, during which he often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl.

Which Tennessee senator asked of Watergate, 'What did the President know and when did he know it?'

Howard Baker's knack for brokering deals earned him the nickname 'the Great Conciliator', and he later ran Ronald Reagan's White House as chief of staff.

Which South Dakota senator won only one state, Massachusetts, as the 1972 Democratic nominee?

George McGovern even lost his home state to Richard Nixon. Nearly three decades earlier he had flown 35 combat missions as a B-24 bomber pilot.

Which Idaho senator led the 1975 committee that exposed CIA abuses such as Operation MKULTRA?

Frank Church's panel also dug into FBI surveillance of civil rights groups, and its work led the Senate to set up a permanent intelligence committee in 1976.

Which Wisconsin senator began handing out Golden Fleece Awards for wasteful spending in 1975?

William Proxmire issued the award 168 times, and the very first went to the National Science Foundation for spending $84,000 on a study of love.

Which Massachusetts Republican was the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote?

Edward Brooke had already become the first African American elected attorney general of any state, winning that Massachusetts office in 1962.

Which Arizona senator spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi?

John McCain turned down an out-of-turn early release that his captors offered after his father took command of all US forces in the Vietnam theater.

Which senator, once mayor of Burlington, Vermont, is Congress's longest-serving independent ever?

Bernie Sanders won that first mayoral race in 1981 by a final margin of only 10 votes, then held the office for four terms.

Which Vermont senator quit the Republican Party in 2001, handing the Senate to the Democrats?

Jim Jeffords became an independent, and it was the first time one senator's switch had ever changed which party ran the chamber.

Which Utah senator was the first in Senate history to vote to convict a president of his own party?

Mitt Romney cast that vote against Donald Trump in 2020, eight years after losing a presidential election as the Republican nominee himself.

Which Saturday Night Live writer won a Minnesota Senate seat by just 312 votes after a recount?

Al Franken was not sworn in until July 7, 2009, eight months after the election, because the result was challenged in court.

Which New Jersey senator won two NBA titles with the Knicks before he ever ran for office?

Bill Bradley had already won Olympic gold in 1964 and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before he turned professional.

Which West Virginia senator served a record 51 years in the Senate, from 1959 until 2010?

Robert Byrd was an avid fiddle player who recorded a bluegrass album, Mountain Fiddler, in 1978 while he was serving as Senate majority leader.

Which Massachusetts senator, called the Lion of the Senate, held his seat from 1962 until 2009?

Ted Kennedy first won the seat in a 1962 special election for the place his brother John had given up to become president.

Which Ohio newspaper publisher became the first sitting senator to be elected president, in 1920?

Warren G. Harding barely left home during the race, running a 'front porch' campaign in Marion and letting the crowds come to him.

Which Montana senator, once a copper miner, served a record 16 years as Senate majority leader?

Mike Mansfield then spent more than a decade as ambassador to Japan, where he is also the longest-serving American envoy in history.

Which Tennessee senator, seen in The Hunt for Red October, joined the cast of Law & Order in 2002?

Fred Thompson first made his name in Washington two decades before his election, as the Republicans' counsel on the Senate Watergate committee.