Grassley and Harkin Become #5 Longest-Serving Senate Duo

At 28 years and counting, Iowa’s U.S. Senate delegation has served longer than all but four other pairs and has notched the second-longest period among members of different parties

When the 113th Congress convenes on Thursday the Iowa U.S. Senate delegation of Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin will reach an impressive milestone.

Grassley and Harkin have now served together in the U.S. Senate for 28 years, which is not simply the longest current streak in the nation’s upper legislative chamber, but one of the longest in U.S. history.

A Smart Politics review of U.S. Senate biographical data finds that Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin have notched the fifth longest period of consecutive service for a statewide Senate delegation overall, and the second longest stretch ever recorded for Senators in the same state from different political parties.

On Wednesday, Grassley and Harkin will tie Washington Democrats Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson (1953-1981) and Delaware Republican William Roth and Democrat Joe Biden (1973-2001) with 28 years of consecutive service.

However, those streaks ended at exactly 28 years when Magnuson and Roth lost their reelection bids in 1980 and 2000 respectively.

Grassley was elected to his sixth term in 2010 and Harkin will be up for his sixth term in 2014.

If both Hawkeye State Senators serve until at least the end of Harkin’s current term in January 2015, the duo will pass Maine Republicans Eugene Hale and William Frye for fourth place as well as Arkansas Democrats John McClellan and William Fulbright for third.

Hale and Frye served together in the Senate for 29 years, 11 months, and 13 days from 1881 to 1911 until Hale’s retirement.

McClellan and Fulbright served together for 29 years, 11 months, and 28 days from 1945 to 1974 – a stretch that ended when Fulbright failed to receive his party’s nomination in the 1974 election.

To reach second on the all-time list, Harkin would need to run and get reelected in 2014 and serve together with Grassley into 2016, when they would pass Mississippi Democrats James Eastland and John Stennis, who served together 31 years, 1 month, and 22 days from 1947 to 1978.

South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond and Democrat Ernest Hollings top the list with 36 years, 1 month, and 26 days of service side-by-side in the Senate ending with Thurmond’s retirement in 2003.

In order to pass Thurmond and Hollings’ all-time mark, Harkin would have to get reelected to a sixth term in 2014 and a seventh term in 2020 and Grassley reelected to a seventh term in 2016 to set the record in the Spring of 2021.

With the death of Daniel Inouye (a few weeks before the retirement of Daniel Akaka), the next longest duo currently serving in the Senate is California’s Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

As of Wednesday, the California Democrats will have served alongside one another in the nation’s upper legislative chamber for 20 years since January 3, 1993.

Inouye and Akaka served together for 22 years, 7 months, and 1 day before Inouye’s death a little more than two weeks ago.

U.S. Senate State Delegation Duos with 20+ Years of Service, 1789-Present

As of January 2, 2013. Table compiled by Smart Politics.

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