Klobuchar-Franken Moving Up the List of Oldest U.S. Senate Delegations in Minnesota History

DFL duo will be the ninth oldest delegation from Gopher State at the end of Klobuchar’s term in 2013 out of 42 pairings since statehood

Although Minnesota’s U.S. Senate delegation ranks just 45th in the nation in terms of length of service (with just shy of six years collective experience), DFLers Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken will soon crack the Top 10 list for the oldest such delegation in state history.

A Smart Politics study of the 42 U.S. Senate delegations in Minnesota history finds that Klobuchar-Franken will rank tied for the ninth oldest at the end of Klobuchar’s 1st term at 113 years collectively.

There have been 42 pairs of Senate delegations from Minnesota plus nine separate occasions in which representation was at half force with one Senate seat vacant for a total of 51 incarnations overall.

The oldest delegation in state history was the duo of Republicans Knute Nelson and Frank Kellogg who were 80 and 66 years old respectively at the end of Kellogg’s term in March 1923 for a collective 146 years between them.

Nelson was also part of the second and third oldest delegations in state history – with 139 years between him (74) and Moses Clapp (65) in March 1917 and 122 years between Nelson (80) and Farmer-Laborite Henrik Shipstead (42) when the pair served together for almost two months in 1923 before Nelson’s death.

The 38-year age difference between Nelson and Shipstead is the biggest in Gopher State history. The two senators also have the longest tenures from Minnesota in the nation’s upper legislative chamber at 28+ and 23+ years respectively.

The pairs closest in age at just one year apart have been DFLer Wendell Anderson and Republican Dave Durenberger, who served for almost two months together in late 1978, and GOPers Samuel McMillan and A.J. Edgerton, who served together for seven and a half months in 1881.

The nine-year difference between Klobuchar (50) and Franken (59) is about on par with the average difference across the 42 pairs of Minnesota Senators throughout history (10 years).

As of today, Klobuchar and Franken tally 109 years between them which puts them in a tie for the 18th oldest delegation since the first pair of Senators in 1858, Democrats James Shields and Henry Rice.

Over the next 22 months, provided both Senators serve out the remainder of the 112th Congress, they will pass up seven delegations and tie two others to reach 9th on the all-time list.

And they are moving up the list fast.

Should Klobuchar get reelected in 2012, and both Senators serve through the end of Franken’s first term in 2015, their 117 collective years will rank them as the 7th oldest in state history.

And if Franken also runs and wins again in 2014, and both serve through the end of what would be Klobuchar’s second term in 2019, their 125 collective years would put them at #3.

Age Rank Landmarks for Klobuchar-Franken U.S. Senate Delegation

Denotes oldest U.S. Senate delegation rank in Minnesota history. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

When Al Franken first joined Klobuchar in D.C. in July 2009, their 107 collective years were tied for the 14th oldest for a Minnesota Senate delegation at the beginning of their service together.

Overall, the last 10 delegation pairs from Minnesota (going back to Wendell Anderson and Muriel Humphrey) began with an average total age of 102.2 years.

That compares to an average collective age of 94.9 years for the first 10 delegations in state history from 1858 to 1881.

The average age at the start of the state’s 42 delegation pairs across history is 100.0 years, with an average age at the end being 107.4 years.

Over the past 150+ years there have been 19 pairs of Republican U.S. Senate delegations from Minnesota.

The Klobuchar-Franken pairing is one of seven all-DFL delegations.

In total, there have been eight different partisan combinations across the 42 different pairs of senators.

Partisan Breakdown of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate Delegations

There have also been nine vacancies in Minnesota history in which the state was represented by only one U.S. Senator: in 1870, 1881, 1900, 1923, 1935, 1940, 1978, 2002, and 2009. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

Henrik Shipstead served through nine different delegations plus three vacancies – both Gopher State records.

No other Senator from Minnesota has served in more than four different delegations.

Oldest Minnesota U.S. Senate Delegation Pairs Since Statehood

* Presumes Klobuchar and Franken serve through the remainder of the 112th Congress. Denotes collective age of each Senator on the last day of service for each delegation pairing. Data compiled by Smart Politics.

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