End of an Era: Grassley/Harkin Finish #3 for US Senate Delegation Service

The Iowa duo ends up with the bronze medal for serving alongside each other in the chamber for 30 years

Joni Ernst took office this week as one of thirteen new faces in the nation’s upper legislative chamber.

Ernst took the seat of retired five-term Democratic Iowa U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, who had held the state’s Class II seat since 1985, serving alongside fellow delegation member Chuck Grassley during each of his 10,957 days in office.

Smart Politics has tracked the tenure of Harkin and Grassley in recent years as they climbed the list for the longest serving state delegation pairs in the history of the chamber.

With Harkin now retired, the final numbers are in.

Grassley and Harkin served exactly 30 years together, which is good for the third longest service for U.S. Senate delegation members from any state in the history of the chamber.

The pair fell short of only South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings and Mississippi Democrats James Eastland and John Stennis.

Thurmond and Hollings – also from opposing political parties – served 36 years, 1 month, and 26 days together from 1966 to 2003 when Thurmond retired from office at 100 years of age.

Eastland and Stennis served alongside one another from the Magnolia State from 1947 to 1978 (31 years, 1 month, 22 days) when Eastland resigned a week before the end of his sixth full term.

During Harkin’s final days in office, the Iowa duo passed up Maine’s Eugene Hale and William Frye (29 years, 11 months, 13 days) and Arkansas’ John McClellan and J. William Fulbright (29 years, 11 months, 28 days) to end up with the bronze.

With the end of the Grassley/Harkin era, the longest currently serving pair in the chamber now falls to California Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who have logged in 22 years and three days together through Tuesday.

Feinstein and Boxer rank #21 on the all-time list for delegation pairs and will next pass Alabama Democrats J. Lister Hill and John Sparkman (1946-1969) for #20 in less than two months.

Following Feinstein/Boxer are Alabama Republicans Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions at 18 years and three days followed by Washington Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell at 14 years and three days.

Grassley, who already owns Iowa’s mark as the state’s oldest U.S. Senator, is slated to pass Republican William Allison (1873-1908) in early June 2016 for the longest service in the chamber in Hawkeye State history.

Grassley is currently second on that list with Harkin third.

Longest Serving U.S. Senate State Delegation Pairs

>

* As of January 6, 2015. Table compiled by Smart Politics.

Follow Smart Politics on Twitter.