WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are taking 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:06.679 on a mission that might sound a bit you know 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:09.140 counterintuitive but i promise you the payoff 00:00:09.140 --> 00:00:11.759 is entirely worth your time absolutely we're 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:14.560 looking at a document that on its surface seems 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.239 like standard almost painfully dry reference 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:20.539 material i'm talking about the wikipedia article 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:23.480 titled list of united states senators from tennessee 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:26.879 right which sounds uh thrilling right exactly 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.780 usually when you encounter a list like this just 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:33.320 rows and columns names dates party affiliations 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:35.820 your eyes probably glaze over you might scroll 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:37.899 right past it to get to the main text. Oh for 00:00:37.899 --> 00:00:40.320 sure. It's so easy to just skip the tables. But 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:41.979 we are going to stop and actually look at the 00:00:41.979 --> 00:00:44.479 data points today. We're going to take this seemingly 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:48.100 straightforward list and uncover the historical 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:51.840 drama, the political chaos and the genuinely 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.380 fascinating shifts in American history that are 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:56.259 hiding in plain sight within these timelines. 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:58.939 Yeah. And what's fascinating here is that a simple 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:01.719 list of names and dates actually serves as a 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:04.480 mirror for the growing pains of American democracy. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.939 I love that way of putting it. It's just incredibly 00:01:06.939 --> 00:01:09.799 easy to dismiss this kind of data as trivia. 00:01:10.099 --> 00:01:12.819 But when you look at the patterns, who is coming 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:16.140 in, how long they stay, and the incredibly brief, 00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:19.060 sometimes shocking reasons given for their departure, 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:22.400 you start to see a much larger narrative unfold. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:26.200 You really do. It showcases everything from early 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.200 national security scandals to the deep institutional 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:31.439 fractures of the Civil War. And we are going 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:33.500 to follow those breadcrumbs from the very beginning. 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:36.840 So let's set the foundation for you. Right at 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.299 the start of this timeline, Tennessee is admitted 00:01:39.299 --> 00:01:43.159 to the union on June 1st, 1796. Right. You would 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.260 logically think that a brand new state would 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:47.400 want its senators off to Washington immediately, 00:01:47.739 --> 00:01:50.359 right? To secure its voice in the federal government. 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:52.340 You'd think so, yeah. But there is an immediate 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:55.430 delay. Tennessee didn't actually fill those Senate 00:01:55.430 --> 00:01:59.730 seats until August 2, 1796, a full two months 00:01:59.730 --> 00:02:02.290 after statehood. And that delay right out of 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:05.709 the gate is your first clue about the sheer logistical 00:02:05.709 --> 00:02:07.569 difficulty of building a new government from 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:09.789 scratch in the 18th century. It wasn't just a 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:12.629 matter of sending an email. Not at all. Organizing 00:02:12.629 --> 00:02:15.250 an election, gathering the state lawmakers, and 00:02:15.250 --> 00:02:17.889 agreeing on who should represent this newly minted 00:02:17.889 --> 00:02:21.699 state on the national stage was a messy... friction 00:02:21.699 --> 00:02:24.580 -filled process. It really was. And before we 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:26.699 get too far into the weeds of who they actually 00:02:26.699 --> 00:02:29.379 chose, we should probably clarify a term that 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:31.960 pops up constantly in this list for you. The 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:35.379 seats are divided into Class 1 and Class 2. Which 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:37.409 is an important distinction. Just as a quick 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:40.250 refresher, U .S. senators serve six year terms, 00:02:40.389 --> 00:02:42.810 but the founders didn't want the entire Senate 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:45.689 up for reelection all at once. So they staggered 00:02:45.689 --> 00:02:48.550 the terms into three classes. Every two years, 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:51.330 only about a third of the Senate faces an election. 00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:54.009 Exactly. When a new state like Tennessee joins, 00:02:54.289 --> 00:02:56.909 its two new senators are arbitrarily assigned 00:02:56.909 --> 00:02:59.409 to two different classes to get them into that 00:02:59.409 --> 00:03:01.430 staggered rotation. Which means one of those 00:03:01.430 --> 00:03:03.530 first senators was always going to get a short 00:03:03.530 --> 00:03:06.430 straw, you know, an abbreviated term. sync up 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:08.330 with the national election cycle. Right. Just 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:10.550 luck of the draw. It's a clever bit of constitutional 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:13.729 engineering, but it also means those early elections 00:03:13.729 --> 00:03:16.090 were happening constantly, adding to the general 00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:18.969 instability of the era. Okay. Let's unpack this 00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:21.030 because you mentioned early national security 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:23.189 scandals earlier, and we do not have to look 00:03:23.189 --> 00:03:25.389 very far down this timeline to find some serious 00:03:25.389 --> 00:03:28.090 drama. No, we don't. Let's look at the man who 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:30.710 took that very first class two seat, William 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:34.729 Blount. He's elected on August 1796 as a Democratic 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:37.789 Republican. He is literally one of the very first 00:03:37.789 --> 00:03:40.449 people chosen to represent this new state. The 00:03:40.449 --> 00:03:44.129 huge honor. But his term ends on July 8, 1797. 00:03:44.490 --> 00:03:46.830 He doesn't even make it a full year. And the 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:48.949 reason for his departure isn't a lost election 00:03:48.949 --> 00:03:52.090 or a retirement. His entry ends with a pretty 00:03:52.090 --> 00:03:54.729 stark sentence. It says expelled for conspiracy 00:03:54.729 --> 00:03:57.490 with the Kingdom of Great Britain. It's a staggering 00:03:57.490 --> 00:03:59.710 detail to find just sitting there in a standard 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:01.969 electoral history column. Just casually dropped 00:04:01.969 --> 00:04:04.530 in there. Exactly. Expulsion from the United 00:04:04.530 --> 00:04:07.069 States Senate is incredibly rare even today. 00:04:07.110 --> 00:04:09.490 To have it happen. to one of the state's inaugural 00:04:09.490 --> 00:04:12.650 representatives, and specifically for conspiring 00:04:12.650 --> 00:04:15.150 with a foreign power, and not just any foreign 00:04:15.150 --> 00:04:17.930 power, but Great Britain, so soon after the Revolutionary 00:04:17.930 --> 00:04:20.870 War, it really highlights the extreme volatility 00:04:20.870 --> 00:04:24.500 of the 1790s. Just imagine landing this massive, 00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:27.459 highly competitive, brand new job. You are one 00:04:27.459 --> 00:04:29.680 of only two people chosen from your entire state 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:31.980 for this prestigious role, and you get fired 00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:34.279 in spectacular fashion less than a year later 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:37.000 for high treason. It's wildly dramatic. It really 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.879 paints a picture of the absolute Wild West of 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.519 early American politics. And speaking of the 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:45.379 Wild West, a very recognizable name steps in 00:04:45.379 --> 00:04:47.759 right after Blount to fill that class two seat. 00:04:48.269 --> 00:04:50.810 Andrew Jackson. Yes. And Jackson's trajectory 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:53.410 through this particular list is quite revealing 00:04:53.410 --> 00:04:56.029 about how politicians view the Senate back then. 00:04:56.129 --> 00:04:58.649 It's a complete revolving door for him. He steps 00:04:58.649 --> 00:05:00.730 in as a Democratic Republican to finish Blount's 00:05:00.730 --> 00:05:04.750 term, serving from September 1797 to April 1798. 00:05:05.459 --> 00:05:08.540 Then he simply resigns. He just leaves. He walks 00:05:08.540 --> 00:05:11.459 away. But he's not done. Fast forward to 1823, 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:13.980 and Andrew Jackson returns to the Senate, this 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:16.360 time listed under the party affiliation Jacksonian. 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:18.620 He serves for a couple of years, and then in 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:22.399 1825, he resigns again. The sheer volume of resignations 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:24.360 in the early decades of this timeline is something 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:26.459 you really have to pay attention to. Jackson 00:05:26.459 --> 00:05:28.459 resigning twice is just the tip of the iceberg. 00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:31.750 Oh, there are so many. You have George W. Campbell 00:05:31.750 --> 00:05:34.790 resigning in 1814, coming back, and then resigning 00:05:34.790 --> 00:05:38.209 again in 1818. You see Hugh Lawson White resigning 00:05:38.209 --> 00:05:41.209 to become U .S. Secretary of War and Felix Grundy 00:05:41.209 --> 00:05:43.750 resigning to become U .S. Attorney General. Wait, 00:05:43.810 --> 00:05:46.069 if they're constantly leaving to take cabinet 00:05:46.069 --> 00:05:48.410 positions or just resigning outright like Jackson 00:05:48.410 --> 00:05:50.610 did, it seems like nobody actually wanted to 00:05:50.610 --> 00:05:53.110 stay in the Senate. That is a crucial insight. 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:56.370 It contrasts so sharply with our modern concept 00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:58.860 of the career politician. Someone who might spend 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:01.579 30 or 40 years fiercely defending their Senate 00:06:01.579 --> 00:06:03.720 seat. Right. Today, people fight tooth and nail 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.000 to stay there forever. But in the early 19th 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.220 century, the Senate was often treated as a temporary 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:11.100 assignment. The travel to Washington was grueling. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.120 The Capitol itself was essentially a swamp. And 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.199 much of the real political power was still seen 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.800 as residing at the state level. So it wasn't 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:21.660 the ultimate prize it is today. Exactly. The 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:24.459 Senate was a stepping stone or simply something 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:26.720 a politician would abandon if a better opportunity 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.500 arose or if the political winds at home started 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:32.060 to shift. And that instability wasn't just about 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:34.439 individual politicians deciding they'd had enough 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.680 and quitting. Sometimes the entire system just 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:39.779 completely broke down. This is where the gridlock 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:42.839 comes in. Yes. There is an incredibly bizarre 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:45.300 recurring phrase that just keeps popping up as 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:47.839 you read through the timeline of vacancies. Over 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:49.920 and over again, the explanation for an empty 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.240 seat is the exact phrase legislature failed to 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:56.360 elect. Right. It happens in 1803. It happens 00:06:56.360 --> 00:07:01.459 in 1809, 1821, 1847 and 1857. If we connect this 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:03.839 to the bigger picture. That recurring phrase 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:06.839 is essentially a hidden history lesson about 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:09.379 the mechanics of early American democracy. Because 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:12.019 today we are completely used to the idea of going 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:14.360 to the polls and voting for our senators directly. 00:07:14.660 --> 00:07:17.339 Exactly. But that wasn't the case in the 1800s. 00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:20.060 The fact that this list consistently points the 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:22.139 finger at the state legislature for these vacancies 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.959 proves that state lawmakers in Nashville were 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:27.600 the ones locked in a room trying to choose the 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.519 state's U .S. senators, not everyday voters at 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:33.189 the ballot box. Which leads to the absolute most 00:07:33.189 --> 00:07:36.230 shocking example of this gridlock. If you track 00:07:36.230 --> 00:07:39.089 the Class II seat into the 1840s, there is a 00:07:39.089 --> 00:07:42.509 massive gap in representation. The seat is completely 00:07:42.509 --> 00:07:47.019 vacant from March 4, 1841. all the way to October 00:07:47.019 --> 00:07:50.920 17th, 1843. Over two years. Over two and a half 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:53.459 years where the state had no one in that seat. 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:55.980 It's like being in a modern group text where 00:07:55.980 --> 00:07:58.019 absolutely no one can agree on where to go for 00:07:58.019 --> 00:07:59.980 dinner, so everyone just stubbornly starved. 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:01.779 Well, it's a bit more severe than missing dinner. 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:04.579 You're talking about a state willfully handicapping 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:07.680 its own national influence. Fair point. When 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:09.899 the state lawmakers were deeply divided by partisan 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:12.279 politics, they literally couldn't produce a compromise 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:15.040 candidate. The system was designed in a way that 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.500 allowed for these massive multi -year voids in 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:20.220 representation simply because local politicians 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:22.560 couldn't reach a consensus. Wait, so if they 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:24.040 didn't have a senator for two and a half years 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.560 who was voting on Tennessee's behalf in Washington 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:29.300 during that time? No one. Wow. They simply lost 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.379 half of their voice in the upper chamber of the 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:33.860 federal government. It was a self -inflicted 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:36.659 wound caused entirely by state -level partisan 00:08:36.659 --> 00:08:39.580 gridlock. That really underscores how fragile 00:08:39.580 --> 00:08:41.759 the whole setup was. But here's where it gets 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:44.500 really interesting. Because if you keep tracing 00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:47.379 this timeline downward, you inevitably hit the 00:08:47.379 --> 00:08:50.340 1860s. And the record shifts from bureaucratic 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:53.399 gridlock to outright national fracture. The Civil 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:55.740 War. Look at Senator Alfred O .K. Nicholson. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:57.919 He is serving as a Democrat in the class two 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:01.940 seat. His term ends abruptly on March 3rd, 1861. 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.000 And the explanation for his departure is chilling. 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:07.919 It says he withdrew in anticipation of secession. 00:09:08.019 --> 00:09:10.259 That specific phrasing tells you everything you 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:13.200 need to know about the heavy, inevitable atmosphere 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:16.200 of the country at that exact moment. It's ominous. 00:09:16.259 --> 00:09:18.559 It wasn't a resignation for a cabinet job, and 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:20.399 it wasn't a failure of the legislature to pick 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.200 a candidate. It was a preemptive withdrawal ahead 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.360 of the state severing its ties with the United 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:27.899 States entirely. And the visual impact of the 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:30.100 timeline right after Nicholson's withdrawal is 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:32.639 incredibly striking. Usually you have these neat 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:34.779 rows of names overlapping one term leading into 00:09:34.779 --> 00:09:37.179 the next. But suddenly, for both the Class I 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.320 and Class II seats, there is just a four -year 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:42.360 void. A complete blank space on the page. Between 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:47.059 March 1862 and July 1866, the seats are declared 00:09:47.059 --> 00:09:49.320 completely vacant, with the sole explanation 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:52.940 being civil war and reconstruction. Tennessee's 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:55.720 US Senate seats simply cease to exist in practice. 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:58.399 This raises an important question for you to 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.620 ponder as you think about how institutions survive 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:04.720 trauma. Imagine the sheer institutional whiplash 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.000 of a state losing its voice entirely for four 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.539 years. It's hard to even wrap your head around. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:11.759 The entire political structure is dismantled. 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:14.659 A war is fought on its soil. And then when those 00:10:14.659 --> 00:10:16.860 seats are finally filled again in July 1866, 00:10:17.179 --> 00:10:19.740 the political makeup of the state has been entirely 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.120 inverted by the conflict. You can see that inversion 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:24.100 perfectly in the people who come back to fill 00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:26.519 those seats after the war. The class one seat 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:28.620 is taken by David T. Patterson, who is listed 00:10:28.620 --> 00:10:31.559 as a unionist. The class two seat goes to Parson 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:33.639 Brownlow, who is listed as a Republican. Right. 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:36.039 So you go from a state represented solidly by 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:37.889 Democrats right before the war. to a complete 00:10:37.889 --> 00:10:40.789 void to returning to the national stage under 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:43.250 Unionist and Republican banners. You really cannot 00:10:43.250 --> 00:10:45.750 talk about the whiplash of the Civil War era 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:48.230 without looking closely at the wild timeline 00:10:48.230 --> 00:10:51.509 of Andrew Johnson, which is captured meticulously 00:10:51.509 --> 00:10:53.750 here. Andrew Johnson's path is unbelievable. 00:10:54.129 --> 00:10:56.169 He first appears on the list as a Democratic 00:10:56.169 --> 00:11:00.919 senator serving from 1857 to 1862. But he doesn't 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:03.679 finish that term. He resigns. But this time it's 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:05.620 to become the military governor of Tennessee. 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:08.980 He leaves the federal legislature right as the 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:11.700 Civil War is escalating to govern his home state 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:14.519 under federal military authority. But his timeline 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:17.000 doesn't end there. Incredibly, if you jump down 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:20.080 to 1875, Andrew Johnson returns to the U .S. 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:22.879 Senate as a Democrat. He reclaims his seat, but 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:26.159 his final entry just says, died. He passed away 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:29.340 on July 31st, 1875, just a few months after getting 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:31.340 back to Washington. Going from a U .S. senator 00:11:31.340 --> 00:11:33.799 to a military governor during a massive civil 00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:35.940 conflict, becoming vice president and president, 00:11:36.139 --> 00:11:38.039 though that happens off this specific table, 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:39.899 and then returning to the Senate only to pass 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:42.340 away, is a perfect encapsulation of the turbulence 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:44.580 of the 19th century. It's a whole movie in just 00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:47.950 a few rows of data. Exactly. The sheer unpredictability 00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:50.649 of these politicians' lives is documented right 00:11:50.649 --> 00:11:52.970 there in the dates. As we move past Reconstruction 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:55.850 and cross into the 20th century, the entire rhythm 00:11:55.850 --> 00:11:58.289 of the record changes. You stop seeing resigned 00:11:58.289 --> 00:12:01.990 or failed to elect every few rows. The gaps disappear. 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:04.570 The overlapping terms smooth out. Right. You 00:12:04.570 --> 00:12:07.490 start seeing genuine stability. And nobody exemplifies 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:09.889 this shift more than Kenneth McKellar. McKellar 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:12.370 was a Democrat who holds the absolute record 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:15.480 as Tennessee's longest serving senator. the class 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:19.200 two seat from 1917 all the way to 1953. Wow. 00:12:19.419 --> 00:12:22.779 That is a massive 36 year run. You see him being 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:26.720 reelected over and over again. 1922, 1928, 1934, 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:31.559 1940, 1946. A 36 year tenure represents a profound 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.000 cultural shift in how the office of the Senate 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.120 was viewed. We've moved away from the era where 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:38.080 the Senate was a temporary burden or a stepping 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:40.440 stone. It became a real career. It transitioned 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:43.679 into a destination, a long term career where 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:45.919 a politician could amass incredible seniority 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:48.559 and institutional power over decades. Though 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:50.500 it is worth noting that the Senate seat still 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:52.940 served as a pretty effective launch pad for higher 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:55.460 federal offices during this modern period. Even 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:57.779 with more stability, some people were still resigning, 00:12:57.799 --> 00:12:59.659 but they were leaving to go to the very top of 00:12:59.659 --> 00:13:02.840 the executive branch. True. Cordell Hull, a Democrat, 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.309 resigned his seat. in 1933 specifically to become 00:13:06.309 --> 00:13:09.549 U .S. Secretary of State. And later on, a name 00:13:09.549 --> 00:13:12.710 almost everyone will recognize, Al Gore. He was 00:13:12.710 --> 00:13:16.330 elected in 1984, reelected in 1990, but leaves 00:13:16.330 --> 00:13:20.289 the Senate on January 28, 1993 to become U .S. 00:13:20.289 --> 00:13:22.529 Vice President. Mapping out the domino effect 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:25.090 of a resignation like Al Gore's is a great way 00:13:25.090 --> 00:13:27.970 to see how national politics directly jolts state 00:13:27.970 --> 00:13:30.350 -level representation. Let's trace that out. 00:13:30.470 --> 00:13:33.490 Gore leaves in early 1993 to become Vice President. 00:13:33.929 --> 00:13:36.590 To fill that sudden vacancy, Harlan Matthews, 00:13:36.590 --> 00:13:39.009 a Democrat, is appointed to continue Gore's term 00:13:39.009 --> 00:13:41.750 temporarily. A placeholder. Exactly. Matthews 00:13:41.750 --> 00:13:43.669 is just a placeholder. He retires when his successor 00:13:43.669 --> 00:13:46.080 is elected. That successor steps in on December 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:48.960 2nd, 1994, to finish out the remainder of Gore's 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.480 original term, and it's Republican Fred Thompson. 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.559 It's a perfect illustration of how one individual's 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.980 transition to the White House creates a ripple 00:13:56.980 --> 00:13:59.559 effect down through the state's delegation. It 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:02.080 changes the individuals involved, and in this 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:04.460 specific instance, it eventually changes the 00:14:04.460 --> 00:14:06.659 party holding the seat entirely. Which brings 00:14:06.659 --> 00:14:08.960 us right up to the present day, looking at the 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:12.919 2026 electoral cycle. Today is March 4th, 2026. 00:14:13.629 --> 00:14:15.789 Let's look at how the modern delegation is structured 00:14:15.789 --> 00:14:18.029 right now. Let's do it. The state is currently 00:14:18.029 --> 00:14:20.350 represented by two Republicans. In the class 00:14:20.350 --> 00:14:22.769 one seat, we have Marsha Blackburn. She was first 00:14:22.769 --> 00:14:26.269 elected in 2018, took office in 2019, and was 00:14:26.269 --> 00:14:29.429 just reelected in 2024. In the class two seat, 00:14:29.529 --> 00:14:32.149 we have Bill Hagerty. He was elected in 2020 00:14:32.149 --> 00:14:35.009 and took office in 2021. And the class two seat 00:14:35.009 --> 00:14:37.570 is particularly relevant for us at this exact 00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:40.549 moment. Because of the staggered six year terms 00:14:40.549 --> 00:14:43.090 we discussed earlier, Bill Hagerty is currently 00:14:43.090 --> 00:14:45.789 in the cycle where his seat is to be determined 00:14:45.789 --> 00:14:48.129 in the 2026 election. Right. Happening right 00:14:48.129 --> 00:14:50.389 now. The history of that specific seat, the same 00:14:50.389 --> 00:14:52.690 seat once held by William Blount, Andrew Jackson 00:14:52.690 --> 00:14:55.309 and Al Gore, is actively being written this year. 00:14:55.659 --> 00:14:57.159 If you look at the wider congressional picture 00:14:57.159 --> 00:14:59.039 today, just to round out the state's current 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:01.220 profile, the state's House of Representatives 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:03.539 delegation is also listed in the source material. 00:15:03.740 --> 00:15:05.940 To give the full picture. Yes. Ordered by district, 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:08.580 you have Diana Harshbarger, Tim Burchett, Chuck 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:11.700 Fleischman, Scott DiGialle, Andy Ogles, John 00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:14.779 Rose, Matt Van Epps, and David Kustoff, all representing 00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:17.679 the Republican side, alongside Steve Cohen representing 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.460 the Democratic side. That makes an eight to one 00:15:20.460 --> 00:15:22.840 Republican to Democrat makeup in the House delegation 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.340 right now. When you synthesize this grand timeline, 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:30.759 taking in the entire scope from 1796 to 2026, 00:15:31.059 --> 00:15:34.259 you observe a massive overarching evolution of 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:35.960 the state's political identity. That's a huge 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:38.120 shift. You start with a state dominated early 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:41.299 on by Democratic Republicans, which then transitions 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:44.700 through eras of Jacksonians and Whigs. After 00:15:44.700 --> 00:15:46.820 the Civil War and Reconstruction, it becomes 00:15:46.820 --> 00:15:50.059 deeply, solidly Democratic for well over a century. 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:52.559 And finally, you see the modern transition to 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:54.759 the current Republican heavy delegation we see 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:57.559 today. It is a complete political evolution captured 00:15:57.559 --> 00:15:59.779 purely through the changing party affiliations 00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:02.379 over two centuries. So what does this all mean? 00:16:03.470 --> 00:16:05.970 We set out at the start to prove that a dry list 00:16:05.970 --> 00:16:08.649 of names and days could hold an epic story. And 00:16:08.649 --> 00:16:10.230 I think we've seen that these political records 00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:12.809 are actually treasure maps. They absolutely are. 00:16:12.970 --> 00:16:15.789 They map out human ambition, systemic gridlock 00:16:15.789 --> 00:16:19.830 and profound national crises. Every abrupt departure, 00:16:20.190 --> 00:16:23.090 every failure to elect and every blank space 00:16:23.090 --> 00:16:26.049 on that page represents real people and real 00:16:26.049 --> 00:16:28.929 historical forces colliding. Knowledge is always 00:16:28.929 --> 00:16:31.009 most valuable when we take the time to look at 00:16:31.009 --> 00:16:33.690 the why behind the what's. A simple list gives 00:16:33.690 --> 00:16:35.970 you the what. But by paying attention to the 00:16:35.970 --> 00:16:38.610 context, to the patterns of early resignations 00:16:38.610 --> 00:16:41.250 and the multi -year gaps caused by state lawmakers, 00:16:41.590 --> 00:16:43.970 we start to understand the why. Getting beneath 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:46.129 the surface. Viewing modern political stability 00:16:46.129 --> 00:16:48.690 and even modern political instability through 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.830 this long historical lens helps ground us. The 00:16:51.830 --> 00:16:54.070 systems we rely on today are the result of centuries 00:16:54.070 --> 00:16:56.889 of trial, error, and occasionally total breakdown. 00:16:57.340 --> 00:16:59.100 And I want to leave you with a final thought 00:16:59.100 --> 00:17:01.100 to mull over. We spent a lot of time talking 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:03.580 about those multi -year vacancies in the 1840s 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:05.900 caused entirely by state legislators refusing 00:17:05.900 --> 00:17:08.640 to compromise. The gridlock. What we didn't mention 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:12.000 is that this specific brand of gridlock is exactly 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.339 why the 17th Amendment was eventually passed 00:17:14.339 --> 00:17:17.619 in 1913, taking the power away from the legislature 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:21.759 and giving you the voter. the right to elect 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.440 your senators directly. A massive systemic change. 00:17:24.579 --> 00:17:26.859 It completely changed the nature of these timelines 00:17:26.859 --> 00:17:30.099 forever. Think back to those multi -year vacancies 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:33.359 when the state legislature simply failed to elect 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:36.160 anyone. Imagine if your state today suddenly 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.859 had no representation in the Senate for two years 00:17:38.859 --> 00:17:41.140 just because lawmakers couldn't agree. It would 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.160 be national news every single day. It makes you 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:45.859 wonder, does our modern election system make 00:17:45.859 --> 00:17:48.599 us more resilient or are we just vulnerable in 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.400 entirely new ways? If future historians look 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.920 back at our digital archives 100 years from now, 00:17:54.099 --> 00:17:56.940 what new patterns of gridlock or polarization 00:17:56.940 --> 00:17:58.839 will they see? they find hidden in our modern 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:01.220 spreadsheets? It's a fascinating question. What 00:18:01.220 --> 00:18:03.099 subtle clues are we leaving behind right now 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:04.740 that will completely shock the people trying 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.039 to decode our era? Something to think about. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.180 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:10.640 dive. We will catch you next time.