United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D. C; the composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators; each state, regardless of its population size, is represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years. There being at present 50 states in the Union, there are presently 100 senators. From 1789 until 1913, senators were appointed by legislatures of the states; as the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers of advice and consent which are unique to it. These include the approval of treaties, the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, federal judges, flag officers, regulatory officials, other federal executive officials and other federal uniformed officers.
In addition to these, in cases wherein no candidate receives a majority of electors for Vice President, the duty falls to the Senate to elect one of the top two recipients of electors for that office. Furthermore, the Senate has the responsibility of conducting the trials of those impeached by the House; the Senate is considered both a more deliberative and more prestigious body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, statewide constituencies, which led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere. The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States, President of the Senate. In the Vice President's absence, the President Pro Tempore, customarily the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. In the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers; the drafters of the Constitution created a bicameral Congress as a compromise between those who felt that each state, since it was sovereign, should be represented, those who felt the legislature must directly represent the people, as the House of Commons did in Great Britain.
This idea of having one chamber represent people while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise. There was a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a "People's House" directly elected by the people, with short terms obliging the representatives to remain close to their constituents; the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally; the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate; the name is derived from Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the following comment about the Senate: In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure.
An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, to balance and check the other, they ought to be so constituted. The Senate, ought to be this body. Article Five of the Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state's consent; the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation allowed to vote in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two "shadow U. S. Senators", but they are officials of the D. C. City Government and not members of the U. S. Senate; the United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. The disparity between the most and least populous states has grown since the Connecticut Compromise, which granted each state two members of the Senate and at least one member of the House of Representatives, for a total minimum of three presidential electors, regardless of population.
In 1787, Virginia had ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has 70 times the population of Wyoming, based on the 1790 and 2000 censuses. This means some citizens are two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are proportionate to the population of each state, reducing the disparity of representation. Before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were elected by the individual state legislatures. Problems with repeated vacant seats due to the inability of a legislature to elect senators, intrastate political struggles, bribery and intimidation had led to a growing movement to amend the Constitution to allow for the direct election of senators; the party composition of the Senate during the 116th Congress: Art
1964 United States presidential election in Tennessee
The 1964 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose eleven representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Tennessee was won by incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, with 55.50% of the popular vote, against Senator Barry Goldwater, with 44.49% of the popular vote
1936 United States presidential election in Tennessee
The 1936 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 3, 1936, as part of the 1936 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose eleven representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Tennessee was won by incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, running with Vice President John Nance Garner, with 68.78% of the popular vote, against Governor Alf Landon, running with Frank Knox, with 30.81% of the popular vote
1976 United States presidential election in Tennessee
The 1976 United States presidential election in Tennessee was held on November 2, 1976. The Democratic Party candidate, former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter won the state of Tennessee with 56% of the vote against Republican Party candidate, President Gerald Ford, carrying the state’s ten electoral votes. Carter, a native Southerner from neighboring Georgia, carried Tennessee with a 13% margin of victory against incumbent Ford; the Watergate scandal had damaged Ford's predecessor, Richard Nixon, who had resigned in 1974 as a result, the Republican Party as a whole. The unknown Carter campaigned as a Washington outsider free of the corruption of Watergate, thus appealed to many voters in the country, including Tennessee; as was normal during this era, Carter carried Western Tennessee and Middle Tennessee, the most Democratic regions in the state, by landslide margins, which included the major cities of Memphis and Nashville, the state capital. Carter made inroads in traditionally Republican East Tennessee, though Ford kept the region in his column with his wins in the major cities of Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Carter outperformed by 0.44% Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 result during that President’s national landslide; this was the first occasion since Oklahoma became a state in 1907 that Tennessee and Oklahoma produced a different popular vote winner, an occurrence replicated only in 1992 and 1996. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last presidential election in which the Democratic candidate won Tennessee with a majority of the popular vote. Bill Clinton would carry the state in both his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, though with pluralities with Tennessee native Al Gore on the tickets; this is the last election in which Williamson County, Sullivan County, Madison County, Hamblen County, Cumberland County, McMinn County, Loudon County, Monroe County, Rhea County, Chester County voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate
Howard Baker
Howard Henry Baker Jr. was an American politician and diplomat who served as a Republican US Senator from Tennessee, Senate Minority Leader, Senate Majority Leader. Known in Washington, D. C. as the "Great Conciliator," Baker was regarded as one of the most successful senators in terms of brokering compromises, enacting legislation, maintaining civility. For example, he had a lead role in the fashioning and passing of the Clean Air Act of 1970 with Democratic senator Edmund Muskie. A moderate conservative, he was respected by his Democratic colleagues. Baker sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but dropped out after the first set of primaries. From 1987 to 1988, he served as White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan. From 2001 to 2005, he was the United States Ambassador to Japan. Baker was born in Tennessee, to Dora Ann née Ladd and Howard Baker Sr.. His father served as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from 1951 to 1964, representing a traditionally-Republican district in East Tennessee.
Baker attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, after graduating, he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. During World War II, he trained at a U. S. Navy facility on the campus of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, he served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 and graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1949. That year, he began his law practice. Baker began his political career in 1964, when he lost to the liberal Democrat Ross Bass in a US Senate election to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Estes Kefauver. In the 1966 United States Senate election in Tennessee, Bass lost the Democratic primary to a former Governor of Tennessee, Frank G. Clement, Baker handily won his Republican primary race against Kenneth Roberts, 112,617 to 36,043. Baker won the general election, capitalizing on Clement's failure to energize the Democratic base organized labor.
He won by a somewhat larger-than-expected margin of 55.7 percent to Clement's 44.2 percent. Baker thus became the first Republican senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction and the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate from Tennessee. Harry W. Wellford a private attorney but a US District Court justice and US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice, served as Baker's campaign chair and closest confidant. Baker was re-elected in 1972 and again in 1978 and served from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1985. In 1969, he was a candidate for the Minority Leadership position that opened up with the death of his father-in-law, Everett Dirksen, but Baker was defeated 24–19 by Hugh Scott. At the beginning of the next Congress, in 1971, Baker ran again, losing again to Scott, 24–20; when Scott retired, Baker was elected as leader of the Senate Republicans in 1977 by his Republican colleagues, defeating Robert Griffin, 19–18. Baker led the Senate GOP for the last eight years of his tenure, serving two terms as Senate Minority Leader and two terms as Senate Majority Leader.
Baker did not seek further re-election but concluded his Senate career in 1985. He was succeeded by future Vice President Al Gore. President Richard Nixon asked Baker in 1971 to fill one of the two empty seats on the US Supreme Court; when Baker took too long to decide whether he wanted the appointment, Nixon changed his mind and nominated William Rehnquist instead. In 1973 to 1974, Baker was the influential ranking minority member of the Senate Watergate Committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, which investigated the Watergate scandal. Baker famously asked aloud, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" The question is sometimes attributed to being given to him by his counsel and former campaign manager, future US Senator Fred Thompson. John Dean, former counsel to Nixon, revealed to Senate Watergate chief counsel Samuel Dash in executive session that Baker had "secret dealings with the White House" during the congressional investigation. Although Baker, as a US senator, would be a juror in any future impeachment trial, Baker was recorded, on February 22, 1973, promising Nixon, "I'm your friend.
I'm going to see that your interests are protected."Watergate reporter Bob Woodward wrote that "both the majority Democrats and minority Republicans agreed to share all information." One such document shared by Nixon lawyer Fred Buzhardt inadvertently suggested the presence of Nixon's secret taping system. Baker was mentioned by insiders as a possible nominee for Vice President of the United States on a ticket headed by incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976. According to many sources, Baker was a frontrunner until he disclosed that his wife, was a recovered alcoholic. Ford, evidently concluding that one alcoholic spouse in the campaign, his wife, was sufficient, chose Kansas Senator Bob Dole. Baker ran for U. S. President in 1980, dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination after losing the Iowa caucuses to George H. W. Bush and the New Hampshire primary to Ronald Reagan though a Gallup poll had him in second place in the presidential race at 18%, behind Reagan at 41% as late as November 1979.
Baker's support of the 1978 Panama Canal Treaties was overwhelmingly unpopular among Republicans, it was a factor in Reagan's choosing Bush instead as his running mate. Ted Stevens served as Acting Minority Leader during Baker's primary campaign. In 1984, Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom; as a testament to Baker's skill as a negotiator and an
1872 United States presidential election in Tennessee
The 1872 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 5, 1872, as part of the 1872 United States presidential election. Voters chose twelve representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Tennessee voted for the Liberal Republican candidate, Horace Greeley, over Republican candidate, Ulysses S. Grant. Greely won Tennessee by a margin of 4.32%. However, Greely died prior to the Electoral College meeting, allowing for Tennessee's twelve electors to vote for the candidate of their choice
1912 United States presidential election in Tennessee
The 1912 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 5, 1912, as part of the 1912 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose twelve representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Tennessee was won by Princeton University President Woodrow Wilson, running with governor of Indiana Thomas R. Marshall, with 52.80% of the popular vote, against the 27th president of the United States William Howard Taft, running with Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler, with 24.00% of the popular vote, the 26th president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, running with governor of California Hiram Johnson, with 21.45% of the popular vote and the five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States Eugene V. Debs, running with the first Socialist mayor of a major city in the United States Emil Seidel, with 1.41% of the popular vote. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election in which Hawkins County voted for the Democratic candidate, as well as the last election in which Blount County, Washington County, Sevier County, Carter County, Jefferson County, Henderson County, Grainger County, Scott County, Unicoi County, Johnson County did not vote for the Republican candidate
