Some stick around: Appointed senators and their fates

Jason Dick, CQ-Roll Call on Jan 15, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Appointed senators over the past century have been a constant presence in the chamber. More than 10% of current occupants first entered the Senate after being picked to succeed departing members in between elections.

Since 1913, when the 17th Amendment to the Constitution established the direct election of senators and provided a means to fill Senate seats vacated due to resignation, death, expulsion or what have you, 206 individuals have been appointed to the chamber, according to Senate records. That number will grow by two in the near future, when the successors to Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio and Secretary of State-designee Marco Rubio of Florida are sworn in.

Of that 206, fates diverge almost evenly among those who went on to hold their seats in the following election; those who lost the general election or the primary following their appointment; or those who chose not to seek election.

The 119th Congress currently has 11 senators who were appointed and went on to win subsequent elections. The most senior person on the list is Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who was first sworn in on Jan. 7, 2003. (Her father, Gov. Frank H. Murkowski, who had just left the Senate, subsequently appointed her to fill his seat.)

After Murkowski, in order of Senate seniority, are current Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Banking Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.

That roster makes up not just 11% of the current chamber, but about 5% of the overall tally of 206 appointed senators. Once the Vance and Rubio successors are sworn in, the baker’s dozen of the appointed will make up about 6% of a total of 208.

Reaching back to the beginning of this process, on Jan. 7, 1913, when Sen. Rienzi M. Johnston, D-Texas, was sworn in, 71 of the 206 appointed senators did not seek election in the following contest to fill the seat they occupied. Seventy went on to win the next election and continue serving as a senator. And 61 either lost in the general, special or primary election that they threw their hats in the ring for.

As always, there are some anomalies. Ohio Democrat Howard M. Metzenbaum, for instance, was appointed in January 1974, but lost that year’s primary contest to eventual Sen. John Glenn. But Metzenbaum then ran in 1976 for the state’s other Senate seat and won a full term that way.

Another notable anomaly: Mississippi Democrat James O. Eastland was appointed and sworn in to the Senate on June 30, 1941, but sat out the following special election and left the chamber just a few months later. He sought — and won — the seat in the regular election the following year and served for six full terms, retiring after the 1978 elections.

Three appointed senators died in office, leading, of course, to even more appointed senators to replace them.

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