QUESTIONS:
1. Former Sen. Strom Thurmond (R.-S.C.), who died recently at age 100, set the record as the oldest and longest-serving senator in American history when he retired last year. Among present senators, who is the longest-serving?
2. When Thurmond was the State’s Rights candidate for President in 1948, who was his vice presidential running mate?
3. Excluding his presidential race, what was the only political race in which Thurmond was ever defeated?
4. Thurmond changed to the Republican Party in 1964 and two years later, became the second Republican ever to win statewide in the Old Confederacy since Reconstruction. Who was the first?
5. When Thurmond completed 48 years in the Senate last year, he set the record as the longest-serving senator. Whose record did he break?
ANSWERS:
1. Robert C. Byrd (D.-W.Va.), who has been in the Senate since 1958.
2. Gov. Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi.
3. He lost a race for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Olin C. Johnston in 1950.
4. John Tower of Texas, who won a U.S. Senate race in 1961.
5. Carl T. Hayden (D.-Ariz.), who served from 1926-1968.
