Did you know that…
- Walter Mondale was Ambassador to Japan (1993-1996) after being a US Senator from Minnesota, Vice President for Jimmy Carter and his failed presidential bid in 1984.
- There have been 15 senators that also served as Supreme Court Justices, and three were Chief Justice (White, Chase, and Ellsworth).
- There have been 32 cases of explusion in the US Senate. Only 15 of these cases were successful in expelling the senator from office, with the first being William Blount (R-TN) in 1797. As a result of the Civil War, 8 senators were expelled for supporting the rebellion and this was the last successful expulsion from the Senate. The most intriguing attempted explusion by the Senate was in 1907 when the Committee on Privileges and Elections claimed “Reed Smoot”
:http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=s000644 was not entitled to his seat due to his being a Mormon, supporting a religion that advocated polygamy. - 19 senators have changed party while in office.
- Since the first direct elections of senators in 1914, the year with the highest number of freshman senators was 1978 with 20 senators (20% of the Senate).