QUESTIONS:
1. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R.-Miss.) has been in the headlines. Prior to Lott’s election as leader in 1996, who was the last Mississippi senator to run for the office of Senate majority leader?
2. Lott moved up from the No. 2 leadership position of Republican whip to become Republican leader. Who was the last Republican Senate whip to move up to leader?
3. What veteran Democratic senator did Lott succeed in the Senate in 1988?
4. Lott has been in the Senate for 14 years, but he was not Mississippi’s first Republican senator since Reconstruction. Who holds that distinction?
5. Who was the last Mississippian to hold a leadership position in the House?
ANSWERS:
1. Democratic Sen. Pat Harrision, who lost a race for majority leader by one vote to Sen. Alben Barkley of Kentucky in 1937.
2. Sen. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, who was elected whip in 1969 following the death of Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen (R.-Ill.).
3. John C. Stennis, who held the same seat from 1946-88.
4. His present colleague, Thad Cochran, who was first elected to the Senate in 1978.
5. Lott himself, who was House Republican whip from 1980-88.
