WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Welcome to today's deep dive. If you're tuning 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:06.139 in right now, well, we know exactly who you are. 00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:08.660 Yeah, you're someone who loves to learn. Exactly. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:12.220 You're someone who constantly seeks to connect 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.919 the dots and who really appreciates when the 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:20.640 seemingly mundane reveals something, well, something 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.960 extraordinary. You don't just want the surface 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:25.199 level headline. Right. You want to know how the 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.850 machinery underneath actually works. And because 00:00:28.850 --> 00:00:31.510 of that, you are going to really appreciate our 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:34.210 mission today. That is absolutely the goal. We 00:00:34.210 --> 00:00:36.469 are looking at a single historical source today. 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:40.289 And at first glance, it might look like the driest 00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:42.850 document imaginable. Oh, totally. It's a straightforward 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:45.710 Wikipedia article simply titled List of United 00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:48.729 States Senators from Kansas. Literally just columns 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:51.310 of dates, names and political parties. I mean, 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:53.250 it looks like an accountant's ledger from a century 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:56.130 ago. It really does. But our mission today isn't 00:00:56.130 --> 00:00:58.700 just to. You know, read a list of names to you. 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:02.079 We are going to extract the hidden stories, the 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:05.040 staggering political streaks and the surprising 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.379 human drama that's entirely hidden within the 00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:10.859 rigid data columns of this congressional roster. 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:13.900 OK, let's unpack this. It really is an exercise 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:15.700 in reading between the lines of a spreadsheet. 00:01:16.489 --> 00:01:19.189 When you take a step back, this source lays out 00:01:19.189 --> 00:01:21.609 the entire history of Kansas's representation 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:24.109 in the United States Senate. Right from the very 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:27.250 beginning. Exactly. Starting from the exact moment 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:29.650 it was admitted to the union on January 29th, 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:32.530 1861, all the way down to the current delegation 00:01:32.530 --> 00:01:34.650 serving today. And just to set the stage for 00:01:34.650 --> 00:01:37.010 our listeners here, we aren't here to... talk 00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:39.590 modern politics or take ideological sides. No, 00:01:39.670 --> 00:01:41.870 definitely not. Just to be absolutely clear on 00:01:41.870 --> 00:01:44.049 that point, while we are discussing right wing 00:01:44.049 --> 00:01:47.430 and left wing political parties today, this deep 00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:50.659 dive takes no sides. We are impartially analyzing 00:01:50.659 --> 00:01:52.879 the historical data provided in the source material 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:56.280 without endorsing any viewpoint whatsoever. We're 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:58.519 just looking at the facts on the page. We're 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:00.719 treating this purely as political archaeologists. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:03.959 We're looking at how an absolute fortress of 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:07.799 incumbency was built over 160 plus years. We 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:09.860 are simply mapping out the electoral history 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:13.120 to understand the mechanics of power. Precisely. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:15.199 And the big picture data right at the top of 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.129 that history. It hits you with some truly massive 00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:20.689 numbers that set the tone for everything else 00:02:20.689 --> 00:02:22.349 we're going to discuss today. It's staggering. 00:02:22.550 --> 00:02:24.430 In the entire history of the state, there have 00:02:24.430 --> 00:02:28.330 been 29 Republicans, just three Democrats, and 00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:31.050 exactly two populists in the Senate representing 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:34.770 Kansas. Wow. And today, the state's current senators 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:37.689 are Republicans Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall. 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:41.090 That ratio is just wild to think about, 29 to 00:02:41.090 --> 00:02:43.629 3 to 2. Yeah. But the streaks themselves are 00:02:43.629 --> 00:02:45.750 even more mind -blowing than the overall. totals. 00:02:45.750 --> 00:02:48.590 When you trace the timeline, you find that Kansas 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:52.509 last elected a Democratic senator in 1932. 1932. 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:54.389 Just pause and think about how long ago that 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:56.870 was. We are talking about the era of the Great 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:59.590 Depression. And that political dominance extends 00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:02.310 to both seats. As you know, every state has two 00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:04.689 Senate seats. In the Senate's organizational 00:03:04.689 --> 00:03:07.169 structure, these are categorized into classes, 00:03:07.250 --> 00:03:09.750 specifically class two and class three for Kansas. 00:03:10.009 --> 00:03:12.069 Wait, before we move on, for those who might 00:03:12.069 --> 00:03:15.150 not remember 10th grade civics, what exactly 00:03:15.150 --> 00:03:18.610 do those classes mean? Why aren't they just seat 00:03:18.610 --> 00:03:21.199 A and seat B? It's a great question, and it goes 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:23.960 right back to the founding fathers. They intentionally 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.000 staggered Senate terms so that only a third of 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.360 the Senate is up for reelection during any given 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.979 election cycle. This was designed to prevent 00:03:31.979 --> 00:03:34.020 the entire chamber from being swept out in a 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:37.400 single, volatil election year. So class two senators 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:39.759 belong to one electoral cycle and class three 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:42.020 senators belong to another. That makes perfect 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:43.979 sense. It builds in a sort of forced stability. 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:46.960 And speaking of stability. Both of those seats 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.900 in Kansas have been occupied by Republicans since 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:53.259 1939. Yeah, which is. That is the longest current 00:03:53.259 --> 00:03:56.020 streak of one party controlling both of the state 00:03:56.020 --> 00:03:58.439 Senate seats in the entire country. What's fascinating 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:01.639 here is how a simple timeline reveals a near 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:05.340 century of unbroken political continuity. It 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:08.099 is a visual representation of an absolute political 00:04:08.099 --> 00:04:10.719 fortress. It really is. But the historical data 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.240 goes even deeper. If you look specifically at 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.300 that class two seat. the one that was recently 00:04:15.300 --> 00:04:19.199 contested in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2020, that 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:21.680 specific seat has been held consecutively by 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:25.399 Republicans since 1919. 1919. That is the longest 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:28.279 current streak for a single seat in the entire 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:30.959 United States. Generations of voters have lived 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.759 their entire lives without ever seeing that particular 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:35.879 seat flip to another party. It's incredible. 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:38.500 But no fortress is entirely without its breaches. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:41.040 I was scanning the early years of the timeline, 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:44.279 and in a list of 29 Republicans, Those three 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:46.560 rare Democrats really stand out. They do, and 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:48.779 they are clustered in very specific historical 00:04:48.779 --> 00:04:50.959 windows. They aren't evenly spaced out at all. 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:52.860 Right. The first one to break the mold is a man 00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:55.180 named John Martin from Topeka. He served from 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:58.259 March 1893 to March 1895. And what's interesting 00:04:58.259 --> 00:05:00.079 is that he wasn't elected to a full six -year 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.939 term. No, he was elected to finish out a term 00:05:02.939 --> 00:05:05.300 for a previous senator who had vacated the seat. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:08.379 It was a brief window of opportunity. Then, quite 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:10.600 a bit later, you see a second breach in the fortress. 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:13.720 William H. Thompson from Garden City manages 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:16.100 to win a full term. Right. He was elected in 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:19.860 1913 and served until 1919. But he couldn't hold 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:22.379 on to the momentum and ultimately lost his reelection 00:05:22.379 --> 00:05:24.620 bid. And that brings us to the final Democratic 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:27.810 exception, George McGill from Wichita. He was 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:30.649 elected in 1930, again, to finish out a partial 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:33.529 term. But unlike Martin, McGill actually managed 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:36.389 to get reelected in 1932 to a full term of his 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:40.069 own. Exactly. And as we noted earlier, that 1932 00:05:40.069 --> 00:05:42.350 election is the absolute last time a Democrat 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.129 won a Senate race in Kansas. He eventually lost 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:47.649 reelection in 1938 and left office in January 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:50.310 1939. And the door has been firmly shut ever 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:53.160 since. But as rare as those Democrats are, I 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.259 found an even stranger anomaly when I was looking 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:57.699 through the late 1800s. I was expecting to just 00:05:57.699 --> 00:05:59.740 see the usual back and forth of Republicans and 00:05:59.740 --> 00:06:02.959 maybe a Democrat, and suddenly, boom, populist. 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:06.170 It really jumps off the page. The two party system 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:09.949 is so entrenched in our minds that seeing a recognized 00:06:09.949 --> 00:06:12.629 third party achieve the highest level of federal 00:06:12.629 --> 00:06:15.990 office is jarring. It's totally jarring. And 00:06:15.990 --> 00:06:17.709 it wasn't just a one off fluke. It was a back 00:06:17.709 --> 00:06:20.209 to back populist presence in the 1890s. Yeah. 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:22.370 First, you have William A. Pepper from Coffeyville. 00:06:22.449 --> 00:06:25.490 Right. He was elected in 1891 and served until 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.889 1897. He ended up losing reelection. But who 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:31.860 did he lose to? Another populist. A man named 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.100 William Harris from Linwood. Exactly, who took 00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:37.149 over in 1897 and served until 1903. Before we 00:06:37.149 --> 00:06:38.829 rush past that, we should probably clarify what 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:41.470 a populist actually was in the context of the 00:06:41.470 --> 00:06:43.829 1890s. Good point. This wasn't just a buzzword. 00:06:43.910 --> 00:06:47.389 It was a highly organized agrarian anti -establishment 00:06:47.389 --> 00:06:49.889 movement. It was driven largely by farmers who 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:52.629 felt completely left behind by the industrialization 00:06:52.629 --> 00:06:55.569 of the era, the banking systems, and the traditional 00:06:55.569 --> 00:06:57.709 political parties. So they basically formed their 00:06:57.709 --> 00:07:00.430 own political apparatus and successfully took 00:07:00.430 --> 00:07:03.470 over a U .S. Senate seat. Twice. If we connect 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:05.550 this to the bigger picture, it really highlights 00:07:05.550 --> 00:07:07.550 something profound about political evolution. 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:11.509 You have this massive, seemingly impenetrable 00:07:11.509 --> 00:07:14.850 streak stretching across the 20th and 21st centuries. 00:07:15.009 --> 00:07:17.370 Right. But if you look at the late 19th century 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:20.529 in this data, the environment was volatile enough 00:07:20.529 --> 00:07:23.449 to briefly allow an entirely different grassroots 00:07:23.449 --> 00:07:26.430 third party to disrupt the establishment and 00:07:26.430 --> 00:07:28.970 represent Kansas and Washington. It proves that 00:07:28.970 --> 00:07:31.449 the rigid two party bloc we see today wasn't 00:07:31.449 --> 00:07:34.540 always the default reality. Not at all. Vaultal 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:36.100 is definitely the right word, because when you 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:38.459 start looking at the individual electoral histories, 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:42.540 this seemingly boring list of names hide some 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:45.720 incredible human drama and sudden chaos. It starts 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:47.540 right at the very beginning of the state's history. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:49.139 That's one of the first things I noticed. There's 00:07:49.139 --> 00:07:51.740 a weird gap right at the inception. Kansas was 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:54.500 officially admitted to the union on January 29th, 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:57.759 1861. But both Senate seats are listed as vacant 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:01.279 until April 4, 1861. Right. The state didn't 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.160 actually elect its first senators until more 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.519 than two months after statehood. What happened 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:08.000 there? The machinery of a new state takes time 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.379 to get running. You have to remember the context 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:13.660 of early 1861. The country was fracturing, the 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.180 Civil War was effectively beginning, and organizing 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:18.740 a brand new state legislature to formally elect 00:08:18.740 --> 00:08:21.000 federal senators wasn't something that could 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.300 happen overnight. And once that machinery did 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:26.110 get running... The tenure of those early politicians 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.709 was far from stable. I was looking at the very 00:08:28.709 --> 00:08:31.730 first senator listed for Class II, James H. Lane 00:08:31.730 --> 00:08:35.049 from Topeka. Yes. He was elected in 1861, reelected 00:08:35.049 --> 00:08:37.929 in 1865, and then his term just abruptly ends 00:08:37.929 --> 00:08:41.730 on July 11, 1866. The reason given, it simply 00:08:41.730 --> 00:08:44.509 says died. Just like that. No context, just a 00:08:44.509 --> 00:08:46.610 stark reality recorded in the historical record. 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:49.289 The disruption to a brand new state losing its 00:08:49.289 --> 00:08:51.669 senior senator must have been massive. It is 00:08:51.669 --> 00:08:53.669 a harsh reminder of the realities of the era. 00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:55.850 And mortality wasn't the only reason for sudden 00:08:55.850 --> 00:08:58.110 exits. Definitely not. Just look at the third 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.250 senator on the list, Alexander Caldwell from 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:03.529 Leavenworth. He's elected in 1871, but by March 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:06.429 1873, barely two years into his six -year term, 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:09.129 his entry just says, resigned. He just walks 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:11.970 away. And those sudden exits, whether by death 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:14.730 or unexpected resignation, trigger a fascinating 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:17.370 procedural cascade that we see repeated over 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:20.559 and over in this history. The mechanics of filling 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:23.419 a vacant Senate seat are complex. When a senator 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:25.960 leaves early, there is a sudden vacuum of power. 00:09:26.379 --> 00:09:28.639 Usually the state's governor makes a temporary 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.240 appointment to fill the seat immediately, followed 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.120 eventually by a special election where the voters 00:09:34.120 --> 00:09:36.559 decide who gets to finish the rest of the original 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:38.620 term. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:41.960 because the drama wasn't just limited to sudden 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:44.179 deaths or unexplained resignation. Oh, absolutely 00:09:44.179 --> 00:09:46.700 not. I was scrolling down to senator number 10. 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:49.940 Joseph Burton from Abilene. He was elected in 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:53.379 1901. But his time in office comes to a very 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:57.440 abrupt halt on June 4th, 1906. And this historical 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.460 record pulls no punches. His electoral history 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:03.519 states, resigned when convicted of bribery. A 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.159 major political scandal, neatly compressed into 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:09.100 five words. Think about the shockwaves that sends 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:11.460 through a state's political apparatus. You have 00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:13.759 a sitting U .S. senator heading to prison. And 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:16.600 Burton's disgraceful exit perfectly illustrates 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:18.480 that procedural cascade we were just talking 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:22.639 about. When Burton resigns in June 1906, there's 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.820 an immediate unexpected vacancy. The governor 00:10:25.820 --> 00:10:28.120 then appoints a man named Alfred Benson from 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:30.779 Ottawa to temporarily continue Burton's term 00:10:30.779 --> 00:10:33.860 and keep the seat warm. But Benton doesn't last 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.029 long at all. He is only there for a few months. 00:10:36.230 --> 00:10:38.809 This is a pattern we see throughout the history 00:10:38.809 --> 00:10:42.049 of the Senate, not just in Kansas. The appointee 00:10:42.049 --> 00:10:44.529 curse. The appointee curse. Yeah. The temporary 00:10:44.529 --> 00:10:47.529 appointees often struggle immensely to hold on 00:10:47.529 --> 00:10:49.929 to the power they were simply handed. They haven't 00:10:49.929 --> 00:10:52.009 built the campaign infrastructure or the voter 00:10:52.009 --> 00:10:53.929 base themselves. That makes total sense. You 00:10:53.929 --> 00:10:56.269 are essentially a substitute teacher trying to 00:10:56.269 --> 00:10:58.669 take over the class permanently. Exactly. Alfred 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:01.840 Benson was appointed in June 1906. But he immediately 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:04.419 lost the subsequent special election to actually 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:08.360 finish Burton's term. By January 1907, he is 00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:11.080 out, replaced by Charles Curtis, who won the 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:13.360 election from the voters. We see this exact same 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:16.120 dynamic earlier, too. A man named Edmund Ross 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.519 was appointed to continue James H. Lane's term 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:21.960 after he died in 1866. Ross managed to scrape 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.559 by and win an election to finish that short, 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.659 partial term. But when he had to stand for a 00:11:27.659 --> 00:11:30.120 full term of his own, he completely lost his 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.480 reelection bid. It seems like being the appointed 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.059 guy is an incredibly tough political position 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:38.340 to maintain. But you just mentioned Charles Curtis, 00:11:38.539 --> 00:11:40.740 the man who took over after the bribery scandal. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.200 Yes. And he brings us to another major theme 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:45.980 hidden in this historical timeline, using the 00:11:45.980 --> 00:11:48.399 Senate seat as a stepping stone to the executive 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.980 branch. Charles Curtis has one of the wildest 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:53.460 trajectories I have ever seen in politics. He 00:11:53.460 --> 00:11:56.149 is a remarkably resilient figure. He really is. 00:11:56.429 --> 00:11:59.370 As we noted, he gets elected in 1907 to finish 00:11:59.370 --> 00:12:01.210 out the term of the convicted Joseph Burton. 00:12:01.370 --> 00:12:04.110 He successfully navigates that chaos. Then he 00:12:04.110 --> 00:12:06.370 gets elected to a full term of his own. But in 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:09.549 1913, he loses renomination. His own party says, 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:11.830 no thanks, we're going with someone else. You'd 00:12:11.830 --> 00:12:13.909 think his story ends right there in defeat. You 00:12:13.909 --> 00:12:16.049 really would. But if you scan further down the 00:12:16.049 --> 00:12:18.649 list to the other Senate seat, the class three 00:12:18.649 --> 00:12:20.990 seat, there he is again. Charles Curtis from 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:24.110 Topeka mounts a massive comeback and is elected 00:12:24.110 --> 00:12:28.009 in 1914. It is incredibly difficult to lose federal 00:12:28.009 --> 00:12:31.090 office, lose the backing of your party's nominating 00:12:31.090 --> 00:12:33.789 apparatus, and then successfully fight your way 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:36.490 back into the same chamber just a few years later. 00:12:36.690 --> 00:12:40.190 It requires a formidable political machine. He 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:43.330 returns to the Senate in March 1915 and stays 00:12:43.330 --> 00:12:45.110 there for quite a while, securing reelection 00:12:45.110 --> 00:12:49.019 in 1920 and again in 1926. But his time in the 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:52.419 Senate finally ends on March 3rd, 1929, with 00:12:52.419 --> 00:12:55.100 a very unique triumphant note. Right. It simply 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.320 says he resigned to become U .S. vice president. 00:12:57.419 --> 00:13:00.159 From losing a renomination in disgrace to eventually 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.379 taking the second highest office in the country, 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:05.220 it is a stunning arc. Truly. But he isn't the 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:07.899 only massive national name on this list with 00:13:07.899 --> 00:13:10.460 executive ambitions. If we look much further 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.659 down the timeline, jumping into the modern era, 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.779 we hit the monumental tenure of Bob Dole. Bob 00:13:15.779 --> 00:13:17.940 Dole from Russell, Kansas, occupies a... massive 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:20.220 chunk of this history. He enters the Senate in 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:23.340 January 1969 and he just stays there for decades. 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:27.299 He is reelected in 1974, 1980, 1986 and 1992. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.480 But his end date is June 11th, 1996. The reason 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:35.419 given is incredibly specific and it reveals so 00:13:35.419 --> 00:13:37.539 much about how Washington actually works behind 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:39.659 closed doors. It really does. He resigned to 00:13:39.659 --> 00:13:42.279 campaign for U .S. president. But there's a crucial 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:44.919 piece of context regarding the exact timing of 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:48.399 that resignation. He retired and resigned early, 00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:51.820 specifically to allow his successor to gain seniority. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.059 This raises an important question for anyone 00:13:54.059 --> 00:13:56.139 looking at how power operates in the Capitol. 00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:59.100 Why would a sitting titan of the Senate voluntarily 00:13:59.100 --> 00:14:01.519 step down early? Right. It all comes down to 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:03.279 the mechanics of the Senate, which are heavily 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.620 reliant on seniority. Everything from committee 00:14:05.620 --> 00:14:08.080 assignments to physical office space is dictated 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:09.980 by how long you've been there. So by stepping 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:12.039 down slightly early to focus on his presidential 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.559 run against Bill Clinton, Dole was executing 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.980 a strategic final move for his party. He handed 00:14:17.980 --> 00:14:19.779 off the seat to a temporary appointee, Sheila 00:14:19.779 --> 00:14:23.090 Fromm, from Colby. Exactly. By getting her into 00:14:23.090 --> 00:14:25.149 the chamber a few months before the new class 00:14:25.149 --> 00:14:27.970 of freshman senators arrived in January, he was 00:14:27.970 --> 00:14:30.909 giving her a slight yet crucial edge in tenure 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:33.370 over all the other newcomers across the country. 00:14:33.590 --> 00:14:35.690 That's fascinating. It shows how the actions 00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:38.029 of the most established politicians are dictated 00:14:38.029 --> 00:14:41.070 not just by their own ambitions, but by the strategic 00:14:41.070 --> 00:14:43.669 maneuvering required to maintain their party's 00:14:43.669 --> 00:14:46.990 leverage within the Senate's arcane rules. It 00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:49.870 was a brilliant tactical move by Dole. Unfortunately 00:14:49.870 --> 00:14:52.649 for Sheila Fromm, she fell victim to that exact 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:55.470 same temporary appointee curse we talked about 00:14:55.470 --> 00:14:59.429 earlier. She was appointed in June 1996 to continue 00:14:59.429 --> 00:15:02.210 Dole's term, but she failed to secure the mandate 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:05.049 from the voters. She lost the nomination to finish 00:15:05.049 --> 00:15:07.049 that term just a few months later, in November 00:15:07.049 --> 00:15:11.049 1996. The seat, instead, went to Sam Brownback. 00:15:11.309 --> 00:15:13.309 The maneuvering and the turnover are constant. 00:15:13.370 --> 00:15:15.330 We've talked about the resignations, the lost 00:15:15.330 --> 00:15:17.610 renominations, the bribery convictions, and the 00:15:17.610 --> 00:15:20.269 sudden deaths. But despite all of that historical 00:15:20.269 --> 00:15:23.370 turbulence, what truly defines this list, especially 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:25.409 over the last century, are the marathon runners. 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:28.950 The politicians who secured these seats survived 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:32.169 the initial chaos and settled in for a very, 00:15:32.190 --> 00:15:34.450 very long time. Right. If you want to talk about 00:15:34.450 --> 00:15:36.610 institutional power, you have to ask who stayed 00:15:36.610 --> 00:15:39.590 the longest. If you tally up the years in office, 00:15:39.769 --> 00:15:42.350 the absolute record holder is Arthur Capper. 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:45.840 Arthur Capper. Capper, who was from Topeka, served 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:48.639 a staggering 30 years. He was elected in 1918, 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:52.000 took office in March 1919, and was re -elected 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:57.120 in 1924, 1930, 1936, and 1942. He finally retired 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.940 and left office in January 1949. That is three 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:03.519 solid decades of influence in a single chamber. 00:16:04.009 --> 00:16:05.889 30 years in the Senate means you are shaping 00:16:05.889 --> 00:16:08.370 national policy through multiple eras of American 00:16:08.370 --> 00:16:10.769 history. You are building relationships and institutional 00:16:10.769 --> 00:16:13.110 knowledge that make you nearly unbeatable back 00:16:13.110 --> 00:16:15.549 home. Yeah. And Capper really sets a precedent 00:16:15.549 --> 00:16:18.070 for the modern era stalwarts in Kansas. Once 00:16:18.070 --> 00:16:20.250 a politician secures a seat here, they tend to 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:22.090 hold on to it with an iron grip, creating long, 00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.730 unbreakable chains of incumbency. We see it again 00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:27.230 and again. You have Frank Carlson from Concordia, 00:16:27.289 --> 00:16:30.429 who serves from 1950 all the way to 1969. All 00:16:30.429 --> 00:16:33.370 right. You have Nancy Kasbaum from Wichita. who 00:16:33.370 --> 00:16:36.509 was elected in 1978 and stays until 1997. Sam 00:16:36.509 --> 00:16:39.830 Brownback from Topeka holds his seat from 1996 00:16:39.830 --> 00:16:43.809 until 2011. And of course, Pat Roberts from Dodge 00:16:43.809 --> 00:16:46.629 City, who served from 1997 all the way up to 00:16:46.629 --> 00:16:49.070 January 2021. Which brings us to the present 00:16:49.070 --> 00:16:51.960 day. When you look at the Senate seats specifically, 00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:55.240 you can literally track the baton passes over 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:58.120 a century. From Arthur Capper starting his marathon 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:01.080 run in 1919, eventually handing off the institutional 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.320 weight to long -serving figures like Bob Dole, 00:17:03.419 --> 00:17:05.579 down to Pat Roberts, and over to Jerry Moran 00:17:05.579 --> 00:17:08.079 today. And that unbroken Republican Senate streak 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.039 trickles down to the House today, too. Because 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:11.900 when we look at the current congressional delegation 00:17:11.900 --> 00:17:14.559 as a whole, three of their four current representatives, 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:17.079 Tracy Mann, Derek Schmidt, and Ron Esses, are 00:17:17.079 --> 00:17:19.650 Republicans, leaving Sharice Davids. as the lone 00:17:19.650 --> 00:17:21.549 Democrat in the House. The sheer weight of that 00:17:21.549 --> 00:17:24.089 historical continuity is hard to overstate. It 00:17:24.089 --> 00:17:26.569 is a relentless chain. So what does this all 00:17:26.569 --> 00:17:29.490 mean? When you step back from this topic, you 00:17:29.490 --> 00:17:32.329 realize that knowing the names and dates is just 00:17:32.329 --> 00:17:34.829 the surface layer. Exactly. This history contains 00:17:34.829 --> 00:17:37.470 the DNA of a state's entire political evolution. 00:17:37.710 --> 00:17:40.730 You have the chaos of early statehood with a 00:17:40.730 --> 00:17:42.750 two month delay in getting representation in 00:17:42.750 --> 00:17:47.009 1861. You have the sudden, unpredictable agrarian 00:17:47.009 --> 00:17:50.450 populist wave of the 1890s that completely upended 00:17:50.450 --> 00:17:52.730 the establishment. Yeah. You have the scandalous 00:17:52.730 --> 00:17:55.930 1906 bribery conviction of Joseph Burton that 00:17:55.930 --> 00:17:59.279 triggered a volatile cascade of. temporary appointees, 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.420 and overarching it all, you have a century of 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:05.140 unbroken political dominance over a single Senate 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:07.529 seat. For you listening, recognizing these hidden 00:18:07.529 --> 00:18:09.789 patterns within historical data is the ultimate 00:18:09.789 --> 00:18:12.349 shortcut to being well informed. You don't just 00:18:12.349 --> 00:18:15.029 know a trivia list of names. You now understand 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:17.509 the complex mechanics of the longest active political 00:18:17.509 --> 00:18:19.829 streak in the United States Senate, the strategic 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.650 value of seniority, and the very real human drama 00:18:22.650 --> 00:18:25.130 that occurred within those halls of power. It's 00:18:25.130 --> 00:18:27.509 amazing what you can find when you stop looking 00:18:27.509 --> 00:18:30.109 at history as just a list of facts and start 00:18:30.109 --> 00:18:32.869 looking at it as a story of human ambition and 00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:35.579 institutional power. It is, and it leaves us 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:37.400 with something deeper to consider as we wrap 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:40.259 up. If a single congressional seat can be held 00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:42.680 by one political party without a single interruption 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.039 since 1919 surviving through massive global shifts, 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:49.200 the Great Depression, multiple world wars, and 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.119 the entire technological revolution, does such 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.480 deep -rooted political continuity make a state 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:56.839 immune to national trends? That's a fascinating 00:18:56.839 --> 00:18:58.700 question. Or does it simply mean that when a 00:18:58.700 --> 00:19:00.819 disruption finally does happen, it will be as 00:19:00.819 --> 00:19:02.880 sudden, shocking, and entirely unpredictable 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.079 as that? that populist wave of the 1890s. Something 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:07.660 to ponder the next time you look at a simple 00:19:07.660 --> 00:19:08.480 timeline of history.