Global InformationList of United States senators from Georgia information
Georgia was admitted to the Union on January 2, 1788. The state has had senators since the 1st Congress. Its Senate seats were declared vacant in March 1861 owing to its secession from the Union. They were again filled from February 1871.
United States senators are popularly elected to six-year terms that begin on January 3 of the year after their election. Elections are held the first Tuesday after November 1. Before 1914, Georgia's senators were chosen by the Georgia General Assembly, and before 1935, their terms began March 4. Popular Senate elections remained despite the General Assembly not taking action to ratify the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that was passed in 1913.
Rebecca Latimer Felton was the first female U.S. senator, representing Georgia in the Senate for one day in 1922,[1] having been appointed to the seat to replace the late Thomas E. Watson.
Richard Russell Jr. was the state's longest serving senator, served from 1933 to 1971.
Since January 20, 2021, Georgia has been represented in the Senate by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue in the regularly-scheduled 2020 election, while Warnock defeated appointed Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler in the concurrent special election, both of which were decided in runoffs on January 5, 2021. Ossoff is the first Jewish senator from Georgia and Warnock the first black senator from Georgia.[2]
Georgia is one of fifteen states alongside Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, South Dakota and Utah to have a younger senior senator and an older junior senator.
- ^ "Mrs. Felton Dies. Appointed for One-Day Term From Georgia, She Said She Hoped to See Women in Senate. Active Almost to the Last, She Had Gone to Atlanta at 94 to Attend to School Business". The New York Times. January 25, 1930. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
Mrs. Rebecca Latimer Felton of Cartersville, a pioneer in the fight for woman's suffrage, for many years a leader in State and national activities and the only woman who ever held a seat in the United States Senate, died at 11:45 tonight at a local hospital.
- ^ Tessa Stuart (January 6, 2021). "Warnock Makes History and Democrats Gain Senate Majority". Rolling Stone.