Senate Membership in the United States

Senate: Membership

Introduction to Senate Membership

The Constitution requires a senator to be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state from which he or she is elected. It is more difficult to win election to the Senate than to the House of Representatives, because unlike members of the House, who are elected in districts of about half a million people, Senators campaign for election across their whole state.” (1)

Size, Election, and Terms

Why are there 100 members of the United States Senate? Have the members of the Senate always been elected by the voters of their States? Why do senators serve six-year terms? The organization of the Senate has changed some over time, but it remains a vital part of our government.

Size

The Constitution says that the Senate “shall be composed of two Senators from each State,” and so the Senate is a much smaller body than the House of Representatives (Article I, Section 3, Clause 1 and the 17th Amendment). The Senate had only 22 members when it held its first session in March of 1789, and 26 members by the end of the First Congress in 1791. Like the House, the size of the upper chamber has grown with the country. Today 100 senators represent the 50 States.

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution hoped that the smaller Senate would be a more enlightened and responsible body than the House. Many of them thought that the House would be too often swayed by the immediate impact of events and by the passions of the moment. The Framers reinforced that hope by giving senators a longer term and by setting the qualifications for membership in the Senate a cut above those they set for the House.

James Madison saw those provisions as “a necessary fence” against the “fickleness and passion” of the House of Representatives. Nearly a century later, Woodrow Wilson agreed with Madison: “It is indispensable that Sources besides the House of Representatives which runs on all fours with popular sentiment, we should have a body like the Senate which may refuse to run with it at all when it seems to be wrong — a body which has time and security enough to keep its head, if only now and then and but for a little while, till other people have had time to think.” (Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government)

Election

Originally, the Constitution provided that the members of the Senate were to be chosen by the State legislatures. Since the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, however, senators have been picked by the voters in each State at the regular November elections. Only one senator is elected from a State in any given election, except when the other seat has been vacated by death, resignation, or expulsion. The 17th Amendment gives each State a choice of methods for filling a Senate vacancy. A State may:

• fill the seat at a special election called by the governor, or
• allow the governor to appoint someone to serve until the voters fill the vacancy at such a special election or at the next regular (November) election.

Most States use the appointment-special election method.

Before the coming of popular election, the State legislatures often picked popular and qualified senators. On other occasions, however, their choice was the result of maneuvering and in-fighting among the leaders of various factions in the State. These leaders all spent a great deal of energy trying to gain (and sometimes buy) enough legislators’ votes to win a seat in the United States Senate. By the late 1800s, the Senate was often called the “Millionaires’ Club,” because so many wealthy party and business leaders sat in that chamber.

Each senator is elected from the State at-large. The 17th Amendment declares that all persons whom the State allows to vote for members of “the most numerous Branch” of its legislature are qualified to vote for candidates for the United States Senate.

Term

Senators serve for six-year terms, three times the length of those for which members of the House are chosen (Article I, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution). Senators may be elected to any number of terms. The late Strom Thurmond (R., South Carolina) set the all-time record. Senator Thurmond was elected to the Senate nine times, and he served there for nearly 50 years. He was first elected to fill a vacancy in 1954 and won a full term in 1956. First elected as a Democrat, he became a Republican in 1964 and finally retired in 2003 at the age of 100.

Senators’ terms are staggered. Only a third of them–33 or 34 terms–expire every two years. The Senate is, then, a continuous body. That is, all of its seats are never up for election at the same time.

The six-year term gives senators a somewhat greater degree of job security than members of the lower house have. Those six years give senators some insulation from the rough-and-tumble of day-to-day politics. The six-year term also tends to make senators less subject to the pressures of public opinion and less susceptible to the pleas of special interests than are members of the House.

The larger size and the geographic scope of their constituencies –the people and interests the senators represent–are designed to have much the same effect. In other words, senators are supposed to be less concerned with the interests of a specific small locality and more focused on the “big picture” of the national interest. Indeed, senators are in general more likely to be regarded as national political leaders than most House members.

The large size of the House generally prevents representatives from gaining as much notice and public exposure as members of the Senate attract. Senators, and especially those who have presidential ambitions, are better able to capture national media attention. Over the past several elections, the Senate has emerged as a prime source of contenders for the presidential nomination in both parties. Senators also find it easier to establish themselves as the champions of public policies that appeal to large segments of the American people–for example, social security or national health care.

Senators are also more likely to be covered by the media in their States. They tend to have more clout in their State’s politics than that enjoyed by members of the lower house.

Qualifications for Senators

A senator must meet a higher level of qualifications than those the Constitution sets for a member of the House. A senator must be at least 30 years of age, must have been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and must be an inhabitant of the State from which he or she is elected (Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 of the Constitution). Under the inhabitant qualification, a senator need not have lived in the State for any particular period of time. Most often, of course, senators have been longtime residents of their States.

The Senate, like the House, judges the qualifications of its members, and it may exclude a member by a majority vote. 19 As has the House, the Senate has at times refused to seat a member-elect. The Senate may also “punish its Members for disorderly Behavior” by majority vote and “with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” 20
Fifteen members of the Senate have been expelled by that body, one in 1797 and 14 during the Civil War. Senator William Blount of Tennessee was expelled in 1797 for conspiring to lead two Native American tribes, supported by British warships, in attacks on Spanish Florida and Louisiana. The 14 senators ousted in 1861 and 1862 were all from States of the Confederacy and were expelled for supporting secession.

Since the country was founded, a few senators have resigned in the face of almost certain expulsion. Most recently, the Senate’s Ethics Committee had recommended that Senator Bob Packwood (R., Oregon) be expelled from the Senate because of several episodes of sexual harassment and other personal misconduct. Packwood, in his fifth term in the upper house, had fought the charges for years. But the Ethics Committee’s chairman, Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Kentucky), noted that lengthy committee investigations had shown “a habitual pattern of aggressive, blatantly sexual advances.” Such behavior, McConnell declared, “cannot be tolerated in the United States Senate.” Senator Packwood resigned effective October 1, 1995.

The punishing of a senator for “disorderly Behavior” has also been rare. In the most recent case, in 1990, the Senate formally “denounced” Senator David Durenberger (R., Minnesota). The Ethics Committee had found him guilty on several counts of financial misconduct. The Senate called Durenberger’s conduct “reprehensible” and declared that he had “brought the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” Senator Durenberger chose not to seek reelection to a third term in 1994.

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Senate Membership in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Senate Membership