WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.359 Welcome in everyone. We are so glad you are joining 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:04.540 us for today's deep dive. It's great to be here. 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:06.440 If you are sitting there right now, whether you 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:10.679 are prepping for a big meeting, commuting, or 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:13.220 maybe you are just insanely curious about the 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:16.230 hidden machinations of history. You were in exactly 00:00:16.230 --> 00:00:18.469 the right place. Absolutely. Today, we are looking 00:00:18.469 --> 00:00:20.809 at a piece of source material that, well, at 00:00:20.809 --> 00:00:22.390 first glance, it might just look like a wall 00:00:22.390 --> 00:00:25.449 of data. We are diving into a comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:25.449 --> 00:00:29.550 article simply titled List of United States Senators 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:32.649 from New Hampshire. Which sounds dry, I know. 00:00:32.929 --> 00:00:35.369 Right. I know what you might be thinking. A giant 00:00:35.369 --> 00:00:38.549 chronological table of politicians. A spreadsheet 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:41.909 of names, dates, and obscure political affiliations. 00:00:42.049 --> 00:00:44.770 It sounds like a tremendously dry read. It really 00:00:44.770 --> 00:00:47.070 does. But I promise you, by the end of this deep 00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:49.329 dive, you are going to see this list for what 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:51.409 it truly is. It is definitely not just a table. 00:00:51.490 --> 00:00:54.329 No. It is a secret decoder ring for understanding 00:00:54.329 --> 00:00:57.909 the chaotic, messy, and totally fascinating evolution 00:00:57.909 --> 00:01:00.409 of American democracy. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:03.539 Let's do it. So before we get ahead of ourselves, 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:06.659 let us lay down the absolute foundational facts 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:08.680 from the entry so you have the right structural 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:12.079 context. Right. The baseline. Exactly. So New 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:14.780 Hampshire was admitted to the Union on June 21st, 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:18.159 1788. And the way the United States Senate is 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:21.980 designed, each state elects two senators. But 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:24.120 they do not run in the same years. Right. The 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.480 list outlines that New Hampshire elects what 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:29.159 are called Class 2 and Class 3 senators. To bring 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:31.599 that right up to the present day, the Class 2 00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:35.079 seat is on an electoral cycle that will be contested 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:38.420 next in 2026. Okay. And the Class 3 seat is on 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:40.659 a separate cycle, and its next election will 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:43.859 be in 2028. And there's a very specific reason 00:01:43.859 --> 00:01:45.640 the framers built it that way, isn't there? They 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:47.980 didn't want everyone up. For reelection all at 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:50.680 once. Precisely. The staggering of the classes 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.140 ensures that the Senate is a continuous body. 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:55.560 You only ever turn over roughly one third of 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.719 the chamber in any given national election. Yeah, 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.519 it was designed to prevent total sweeping upheaval. 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:03.239 It guarantees a baseline of institutional memory, 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.799 even when the political winds are shifting wildly. 00:02:06.409 --> 00:02:09.250 Because literally right out of the gate, the 00:02:09.250 --> 00:02:12.509 very first entry on this chronological list throws 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:15.650 a massive wrench into how we usually think about 00:02:15.650 --> 00:02:18.289 politicians seeking power. It really does. We 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:22.189 are looking at the year 1788. New Hampshire is 00:02:22.189 --> 00:02:25.169 a brand new state in a brand new country. They 00:02:25.169 --> 00:02:27.770 hold an election for their very first class two 00:02:27.770 --> 00:02:30.629 senator. And a man named Josiah Bartlett wins 00:02:30.629 --> 00:02:33.759 the election. He is the guy. And instead of packing 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:36.379 his bags for the Capitol, the record explicitly 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:39.180 notes that he declined the appointment. Just 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:41.699 turned it down. Why would someone turn down the 00:02:41.699 --> 00:02:43.539 chance to be a foundational voice in the United 00:02:43.539 --> 00:02:46.319 States Senate? Well, it is an incredible historical 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:48.840 detail and it highlights a major difference in 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:50.800 how government was viewed back then. I mean, 00:02:50.819 --> 00:02:52.800 he didn't just say no thanks out of laziness. 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:55.939 Right. In 1788, the federal government was incredibly 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:58.379 weak. They were still shaking off the hangover 00:02:58.379 --> 00:03:00.900 of the Articles of Confederation. Plus, travel 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:04.139 to the national capital was grueling. Very grueling, 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:07.439 expensive, time -consuming. More importantly, 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:09.900 state -level politics were often seen as much 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:13.259 more prestigious and impactful than this experimental 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.879 new national senate they had just dreamed up. 00:03:16.060 --> 00:03:18.419 So for a prominent fish like Bartlett, staying 00:03:18.419 --> 00:03:20.719 in New Hampshire just made... more practical 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:22.860 in political sense. I just want you to imagine 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.300 that for a second. Think about winning a massive, 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:28.199 highly sought after job offer today. The kind 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:30.460 of position people spend millions of dollars 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:32.939 on. Millions of dollars and decades of their 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.759 lives campaigning for. You win the prize and 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:37.780 you look at it and simply say, no thanks, my 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:39.740 commute would be terrible. It's wild to think 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:41.659 about. Because he declined, the state had to 00:03:41.659 --> 00:03:44.520 scramble, and a man named Payne Wingate had to 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:46.039 step in and take the seat the following year 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:50.080 in 1789. What's fascinating here is how the earliest 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.099 political affiliations of these leaders are categorized. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:55.060 Well, the party labels. Yeah. When you look at 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:57.599 those first few rows of the table for men like 00:03:57.599 --> 00:03:59.759 Payne Wingate or the very first class three senator 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.740 John Langdon, their party affiliation is simply 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:06.759 listed as anti -admin or pro -admin. It's wild 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:09.439 to see the data strip away our modern party system 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.460 and boil early politics down to one single metric. 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:16.569 Are you with the president or against him? It 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:19.290 is a striking binary. Early American politics 00:04:19.290 --> 00:04:21.750 were entirely defined by whether you supported 00:04:21.750 --> 00:04:23.970 the current executive administration or whether 00:04:23.970 --> 00:04:25.949 you opposed it. That was your entire political 00:04:25.949 --> 00:04:28.709 identity on the national stage. Exactly. It was 00:04:28.709 --> 00:04:31.750 only after these initial formative years that 00:04:31.750 --> 00:04:34.730 you see the table evolve to include more ideological 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:37.430 labels like Federalist and Democratic Republican. 00:04:37.750 --> 00:04:40.329 It is a totally binary way to run a government. 00:04:41.209 --> 00:04:43.490 But as we guide you further down this list and 00:04:43.490 --> 00:04:46.470 move fully into the 19th century, the supposedly 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:49.810 orderly system time and time again simply stops 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:52.589 working. The systemic breakdowns? Yeah, I was 00:04:52.589 --> 00:04:54.470 looking through the mid -1800s and there's this 00:04:54.470 --> 00:04:57.470 mind -boggling phrase that just pops up randomly 00:04:57.470 --> 00:04:59.689 in the middle of these timelines. Legislature 00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:02.389 failed to elect. Yes. You were reading along 00:05:02.389 --> 00:05:04.430 expecting the next name and instead it just says 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:07.470 legislature failed to elect. How does a state 00:05:07.470 --> 00:05:09.370 just forget to send a senator to Washington? 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:11.459 Well, they didn't forget. They were just completely 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:13.860 deadlocked. We have to contextualize the mechanics 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:16.620 of how this worked prior to the 17th Amendment 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:18.779 in the early 20th century. Before the popular 00:05:18.779 --> 00:05:22.050 vote. Right. Back then, United States senators 00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:24.709 were not elected by a popular vote of the citizens. 00:05:24.990 --> 00:05:27.769 They were chosen directly by the state legislatures. 00:05:27.850 --> 00:05:30.370 Ah, okay. So when the record says legislature 00:05:30.370 --> 00:05:33.449 failed to elect, it literally means the politicians 00:05:33.449 --> 00:05:35.829 back in Concord could not reach a consensus. 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:38.850 The local factions were so bitterly divided. 00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:41.209 Exactly. They simply couldn't get a majority 00:05:41.209 --> 00:05:43.970 to agree on a single candidate to send to Washington. 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:47.509 So the seat just sat empty. It did. And it happened 00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:50.970 multiple times. For the class two seat, you see 00:05:50.970 --> 00:05:53.790 legislative failures to elect in 1813, again 00:05:53.790 --> 00:05:56.589 in 1885, and again in 1889. And for the class 00:05:56.589 --> 00:05:59.930 three seat. It happens in 1855. These resulted 00:05:59.930 --> 00:06:03.410 in long, frustrating vacancies. It is a phenomenal 00:06:03.410 --> 00:06:05.910 reminder that political gridlock is not a modern 00:06:05.910 --> 00:06:08.110 invention. It was baked right into the state's 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:10.990 historical DNA. But wait, did the 17th Amendment 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:13.709 just trade legislative gridlock for the modern 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:15.730 campaign gridlock we see today? How do you mean? 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:18.339 I mean, we solved the empty seat problem by putting 00:06:18.339 --> 00:06:21.199 it to a popular vote, but now we just have endless 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:23.740 billion -dollar electoral standoffs instead. 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:27.279 That is a very fair critique. The 17th Amendment 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.360 democratized the process absolutely, ensuring 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:32.540 those seats wouldn't just sit empty because of 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:34.980 backroom stalemates in state capitals. But it 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:36.720 just shifted the battlefield. You are right. 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:40.060 Instead of a handful of state legislators arguing 00:06:40.060 --> 00:06:43.279 in a chamber, you now have massive statewide 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:45.680 partisan campaigns fighting it out in the media. 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.899 The friction didn't disappear. It just changed 00:06:47.899 --> 00:06:51.430 venues. Speaking of friction. I noticed a bunch 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:54.009 of early resignations in this era, too. Were 00:06:54.009 --> 00:06:55.569 these guys just getting pushed out of office 00:06:55.569 --> 00:06:58.490 or losing snap elections? Because this list is 00:06:58.490 --> 00:07:01.290 full of career hoppers. Not at all. Again, we 00:07:01.290 --> 00:07:03.389 have to drop our modern assumptions. Today, we 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:05.209 think of the United States Senate as the ultimate 00:07:05.209 --> 00:07:07.370 political destination. You get there and you 00:07:07.370 --> 00:07:10.089 stay there for decades. But back in the 1800s, 00:07:10.089 --> 00:07:12.290 the Senate was often treated as a stepping stone. 00:07:12.569 --> 00:07:14.910 Or even just a holding pattern for other ambitions, 00:07:15.209 --> 00:07:18.050 which explains some of the bizarre pivots I was 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:21.500 reading about. Like Isaac Hill. Yes. Take Isaac 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:25.819 Hill, a class three senator. In 1836, he resigns 00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:28.199 from the United States Senate and he doesn't 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:31.579 resign in disgrace. He resigns specifically to 00:07:31.579 --> 00:07:33.980 become the governor of New Hampshire. Yeah. Today, 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:36.639 senators rarely leave Washington to go take a 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:39.579 governor's mansion. But. In the 1830s, being 00:07:39.579 --> 00:07:42.019 the chief executive of your home state allowed 00:07:42.019 --> 00:07:44.899 you to wield far more direct, tangible power 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:47.819 over your constituents' daily lives than being 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:50.240 one of many voices in a distant federal legislature. 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:52.439 That makes perfect sense. Then you have Levi 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:54.439 Woodbury. He serves multiple different stints 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.839 in the Senate, bounce it around. But in 1845, 00:07:57.259 --> 00:07:59.560 he resigns from his class two seat to become 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:01.879 a justice of the U .S. Supreme Court. Well, a 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:03.660 lifetime appointment to the highest court in 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:05.939 the land is a rather understandable career move. 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:07.759 Oh, for sure. I think anyone takes that deal. 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:10.720 But then you look at John P. Hale in 1853. A 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:13.360 huge gamble. He actually retires from his Senate 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:15.680 seat specifically so he can run for president 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:17.939 of the United States. He gives up a safe seat 00:08:17.939 --> 00:08:20.560 entirely to take a massive gamble on the White 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:24.170 House. Hale's ambition is a perfect segue into 00:08:24.170 --> 00:08:26.930 the ideological turmoil of the mid -19th century. 00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:29.790 The party list gets crazy here. It really does. 00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:31.810 If you look at the party column in this list 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:34.250 during the decades leading up to the Civil War, 00:08:34.409 --> 00:08:37.330 it becomes an absolute kaleidoscope. It is no 00:08:37.330 --> 00:08:39.830 longer just Democrats in wigs. No. You start 00:08:39.830 --> 00:08:43.009 seeing these incredibly specific, flash -in -the 00:08:43.009 --> 00:08:45.710 -pan political movements taking hold in New Hampshire. 00:08:45.889 --> 00:08:49.519 It is like a political Wild West. Every few years, 00:08:49.620 --> 00:08:52.419 a totally new party is suddenly sending a senator 00:08:52.419 --> 00:08:55.899 to Washington. I'm seeing someone listed as Jacksonian. 00:08:55.980 --> 00:08:58.519 Yep. There is a senator elected under the Liberty 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:00.840 Party. You have an independent Democratic senator 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:04.659 and a free soil senator. What was driving all 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:06.980 of that fracturing? Well, to remain completely 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:09.240 impartial and view this strictly as historians 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:12.120 analyzing the data, this explosion of third parties 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:14.340 perfectly illustrates a deeply divided nation 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:16.620 desperately searching for a political identity. 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:18.860 The country was tearing itself apart. Exactly, 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:21.659 over massive national issues, most notably the 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:23.720 expansion of slavery. Right, with the Free Soil 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.220 Party. Right, the Free Soil Party, for instance, 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:29.120 was largely organized around opposing the expansion 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.960 of slavery into the Western territories. The 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:34.059 established parties were buckling under the weight 00:09:34.059 --> 00:09:36.820 of these moral and economic... So all of these 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:40.100 different labels represent a society frantically 00:09:40.100 --> 00:09:42.879 trying to find a consensus that simply did not 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:45.480 exist at the time. Precisely. It really paints 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:47.899 a picture of a country on the brink. But if we 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.200 follow the timeline through the Civil War and 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:52.659 Reconstruction, things do eventually stabilize. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:55.799 The list stops jumping between five different 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:58.779 third parties and settles firmly into the Republican 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:01.440 and Democratic labels we recognize today. Yes, 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:04.299 the post -war era brings a significant calming 00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:07.100 effect to the party affiliations, even if the 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:09.759 politics themselves remained intense. Here's 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:12.039 where it gets really interesting. Oh, boy. The 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:14.580 modern era. Because just when you think the system 00:10:14.580 --> 00:10:17.259 is running smoothly, we hit the 20th century. 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:19.840 If you look at a turn of the century, you hit 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.500 a brick wall of stability with a guy named Jacob 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:25.340 Harold Gallinger, the record holder. He holds 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:27.559 the record as New Hampshire's longest serving 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:30.659 senator, representing the state from 1891 all 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:33.220 the way to 1918. Over two and a half decades 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:36.299 of rock solid consistency. But I only bring him 00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:38.639 up to set the baseline for the absolute madness 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:41.559 that hits the mid 20th century. I want to talk 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:44.580 about the 1974 contested election for the class 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:48.779 three seat. Ah, yes. The 1974 election. If you 00:10:48.779 --> 00:10:50.720 thought the legislature failing to elect in the 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:54.539 1800s was chaotic, this is a masterclass in pure 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:57.080 electoral dysfunction. I was reading this timeline 00:10:57.080 --> 00:10:59.960 and it gave me whiplash. Walk us through exactly 00:10:59.960 --> 00:11:01.639 what happened here, because the gaps in this 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:04.139 list are wild. It starts with the retirement 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:06.679 of Senator Norris Cotton, a Republican who had 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:08.980 been holding the seat comfortably since 1954. 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:12.019 Okay, so he decides to step down. Right. The 00:11:12.019 --> 00:11:13.700 election to replace him takes place in November 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:16.679 1974 between Republican Louie Wyman and Democrat 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.899 John Durkin. The results were razor thin. How 00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:22.059 close? We are talking about margins of a couple 00:11:22.059 --> 00:11:23.740 of votes out of hundreds of thousands, Cass. 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:26.080 So close that nobody actually knows who won. 00:11:26.299 --> 00:11:29.159 Exactly. The State Board of Ballot Laws declared 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:33.070 Wyman the winner by a tiny margin. So on December 00:11:33.070 --> 00:11:36.009 31st, 1974, which was New Year's Eve, Norris 00:11:36.009 --> 00:11:38.750 Cotton resigns a few days early. Okay. And Louie 00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:40.769 Wyman is appointed to finish out the very end 00:11:40.769 --> 00:11:43.029 of Cotton's term, theoretically giving him a 00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:45.269 seniority advantage going into his full term. 00:11:45.389 --> 00:11:48.309 So Wyman gets sworn in. He's the senator. For 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.830 about three days. Three days. Because Durkin 00:11:50.830 --> 00:11:53.110 appealed the incredibly close results to the 00:11:53.110 --> 00:11:55.789 United States Senate itself, which has the constitutional 00:11:55.789 --> 00:11:58.029 authority to judge its own elections. Right. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.600 On January 3rd, 1975, the start of the new Congress, 00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:04.559 the Senate effectively deadlocks on what to do 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:07.220 and Wyman's term is abruptly annulled. So the 00:12:07.220 --> 00:12:09.580 seat just becomes totally vacant. Completely 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:13.120 vacant. From January 1975 all the way to August 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.539 1975. Wow. For over seven months, this Class 00:12:16.539 --> 00:12:19.399 3 Senate seat simply sits empty while the state 00:12:19.399 --> 00:12:21.539 and the federal government fight over recounts, 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:24.559 challenges, and endless legal maneuvering. Neither 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:27.139 side would yield. Which brings us to August 8, 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:30.480 1975, when the state apparently throws its hands 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.679 up in desperation. They did. To break the total 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:36.460 lack of representation, the state appointed Norris 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:38.899 Cotton, the guy who had just retired back into 00:12:38.899 --> 00:12:41.000 his old seat, simply to hold it down while they 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.100 finally organized a special election to settle 00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:46.559 the matter once and for all. They literally pulled 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:49.820 a retired senator off the golf course to babysit 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:52.179 his own former position. It was a highly unusual 00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:54.500 maneuver. And he stays there for a little over 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:58.500 a month until September 18th, 1975, when John 00:12:58.500 --> 00:13:01.440 Durkin officially wins the special rerun election. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.639 And then? At that point, Norris Cotton resigns 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:07.200 early for a second time and Durkin finally takes 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:10.570 over. If we synthesize that, it is. Mind -blowing. 00:13:10.789 --> 00:13:12.789 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it 00:13:12.789 --> 00:13:15.710 is an astonishing sequence of events to see documented 00:13:15.710 --> 00:13:18.129 in a modern historical record. Really? In a span 00:13:18.129 --> 00:13:20.289 of less than a single calendar year, you have 00:13:20.289 --> 00:13:22.330 an initial appointment, an annulment, a seven 00:13:22.330 --> 00:13:25.350 -month vacancy, a bizarre temporary reappointment 00:13:25.350 --> 00:13:28.070 of a retiree, and finally, a special election 00:13:28.070 --> 00:13:31.269 resulting in an early resignation. Four totally 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:33.330 different statuses applied to a single Senate 00:13:33.330 --> 00:13:36.629 seat in months. We place such a high value on 00:13:36.629 --> 00:13:39.279 the peaceful, orderly transfer of power. in a 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:42.600 democracy. We expect it to be a smooth, dignified 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:45.700 passing of the baton. But data like this shows 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:48.480 us that sometimes maintaining the system has 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:51.919 required some incredibly messy duct tape solutions. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:54.659 They were quite literally making it up as they 00:13:54.659 --> 00:13:56.820 went along just to keep the machinery functioning. 00:13:57.139 --> 00:13:59.399 Which makes the transition to the most recent 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.659 entries on this list feel incredibly stark. We 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:05.080 pull out of the chaos of the 1970s, and as we 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:07.279 bring you into the 2000s and up to the present 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:10.860 day, The narrative shifts. From systemic breakdowns 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:13.139 to some genuinely impressive historical milestones. 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:15.679 What does the current delegation look like? The 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:17.620 state's current representation in the Senate 00:14:17.620 --> 00:14:19.840 consists of two Democrats, and they represent 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.320 a significant demographic shift from the early 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:25.139 days of the republic. We have Jean Shaheen. Yes. 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.500 Jeanne Shaheen holding the class two seat. She 00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:29.659 is currently serving her third term, having first 00:14:29.659 --> 00:14:32.539 been elected in 2008 and taking office in 2009. 00:14:32.860 --> 00:14:34.919 And Maggie Hassan. Right. Maggie Hassan holding 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:37.340 the class three seat. She is in her second term, 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:40.879 having taken office in 2017. And there is a major 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:44.159 milestone embedded in those two names that really 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:46.419 stands out against the rest of this 200 -year 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:48.679 timeline. There is. New Hampshire is currently 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:51.120 one of only four states in the entire country 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:54.100 to have two female U .S. senators serving simultaneously. 00:14:54.340 --> 00:14:57.039 Just four out of 50 states have an all -female 00:14:57.039 --> 00:14:59.750 delegation right now. That is correct. And just 00:14:59.750 --> 00:15:01.950 for your trivia knowledge, the other three states 00:15:01.950 --> 00:15:03.769 currently holding that distinction alongside 00:15:03.769 --> 00:15:06.610 New Hampshire are Minnesota, Nevada and Washington. 00:15:06.789 --> 00:15:09.250 Minnesota, Nevada and Washington. That's a great 00:15:09.250 --> 00:15:11.450 piece of trivia. When you step back and reflect 00:15:11.450 --> 00:15:13.909 on the complete journey of this chronological 00:15:13.909 --> 00:15:17.509 table, the contrast is staggering. It really 00:15:17.509 --> 00:15:21.820 is. We started this deep dive in 1788. A time 00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.919 when early American men like Josiah Bartlett 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:27.360 were turning down the job and the Senate was 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:30.279 an exclusive experimental club of anti -admin 00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:33.360 and pro -admin figures. To travel from that precarious 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.639 beginning through the centuries of legislative 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:38.220 deadlocks. Through the ideological fracturing 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:40.220 of the Free Soil Party. Through the absolute 00:15:40.220 --> 00:15:43.690 circus of the 1974 contested election. To arrive 00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:47.429 today at a historic all -female delegation, it 00:15:47.429 --> 00:15:50.490 shows a massive, undeniable shift in representation. 00:15:50.990 --> 00:15:53.990 So what does this all mean? We started out by 00:15:53.990 --> 00:15:56.049 acknowledging that a Wikipedia list of politicians 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:59.210 could easily be dismissed as a dry, boring read. 00:15:59.330 --> 00:16:01.830 Right. But by pulling out these specific threads 00:16:01.830 --> 00:16:03.789 and looking at the context behind the dates, 00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:07.450 I hope you can see what we see. This simple chronological 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:10.629 table is actually a mirror. It reflects every 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:13.169 single one of the nation's growing pains. You 00:16:13.169 --> 00:16:15.409 see the infancy of the country in the vague early 00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:18.610 party labels. You see the pre -Civil War fractures 00:16:18.610 --> 00:16:21.629 trying to address slavery and the chaotic third 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:23.909 party movements. You see the sheer fragility 00:16:23.909 --> 00:16:26.470 of the system in the musical chairs of career 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:28.870 politicians. And you see the arc of progress 00:16:28.870 --> 00:16:31.409 culminating in a modern historic delegation. 00:16:31.889 --> 00:16:34.090 It is all right there in the rows and columns 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:36.779 hiding in plain sight. It is a remarkable story 00:16:36.779 --> 00:16:39.379 of endurance. And before we wrap up today, I 00:16:39.379 --> 00:16:41.220 want to leave you with one final thought to mull 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:43.100 over, looking at this from a slightly different 00:16:43.100 --> 00:16:45.480 angle. Okay, lay it on us. We spent a good amount 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:47.980 of time talking about the politicians, the men 00:16:47.980 --> 00:16:50.039 who hopped between governorships and the Supreme 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.120 Court, the state legislators who deadlocked in 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:55.840 the 1800s, and the candidates who fought over 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:59.179 recounts in 1974. But think about the citizens 00:16:59.179 --> 00:17:01.950 of New Hampshire during those times. Right. The 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:05.450 people actually voting. For seven months in 1975, 00:17:05.890 --> 00:17:08.329 and for long stretches in the 19th century when 00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:11.009 the legislature failed to elect, the people of 00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:13.109 New Hampshire were shortchanged on their representation 00:17:13.109 --> 00:17:15.930 in Washington. Because the seat was empty. Exactly. 00:17:16.170 --> 00:17:18.789 The United States Senate is built on the fundamental 00:17:18.789 --> 00:17:22.250 concept of equal state power. Every state gets 00:17:22.250 --> 00:17:25.569 two voices, regardless of population. So what 00:17:25.569 --> 00:17:28.650 happens to the power of a state's voters when 00:17:28.650 --> 00:17:31.369 the political machinery prioritizes partisan 00:17:31.369 --> 00:17:34.130 bickering over filling an empty chair? When those 00:17:34.130 --> 00:17:36.589 seats sit vacant, it is the citizens who are 00:17:36.589 --> 00:17:39.029 effectively stripped of their equal say in the 00:17:39.029 --> 00:17:42.289 national conversation. Imagine the absolute uproar 00:17:42.289 --> 00:17:45.390 if a state today simply shrugged and left a Senate 00:17:45.390 --> 00:17:47.410 seat empty for months because they couldn't agree. 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:50.000 It invites you to consider whether our modern 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.960 political gridlock is truly unprecedented or 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.240 if we've actually become less tolerant of the 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:57.900 system's built in delays than our 19th century 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:01.420 counterparts. It is a powerful reminder that 00:18:01.420 --> 00:18:04.140 political gridlock doesn't just frustrate politicians. 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:07.640 It fundamentally disenfranchises the people they 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:10.019 are supposed to represent. That is such a fascinating 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:12.079 perspective to take away from this. It really 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:14.220 forces you to think about who actually pays the 00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:16.990 price when the system breaks down. It really 00:18:16.990 --> 00:18:18.970 does. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:18:18.970 --> 00:18:21.089 deep dive. We loved unpacking this with you. 00:18:21.170 --> 00:18:23.849 Keep staying curious and always remember to look 00:18:23.849 --> 00:18:26.230 for the hidden human stories buried inside the 00:18:26.230 --> 00:18:28.289 data. We will catch you next time.