This is a chronological listing of the United States Senators from Massachusetts.

United States Senators are popularly elected, for a six year term, beginning January 3. Elections are held the first Tuesday after November 1. Before 1914, they were chosen by the Massachusetts General Court, and before 1935, their terms began March 4.

[edit] Mid-term vacancy appointment processes

Through the 20th century, mid-term vacancies were filled with the governor's appointee, with the appointment expiring at the next biennial state election. In 2004, the Democratic-controlled state legislature changed the vacancy-filling process, mandating that a special election occur, which removed the Governor's appointment power. This statute was enacted over the veto by the Governor, Mitt Romney. The leadership of the Massachusetts legislature at the time was concerned that the Republican governor Mitt Romney would appoint a Republican if Democratic Senator John Kerry were elected President of the United States in the 2004 election.^[1][2][3][4] Generally, the law requires a special election within 145 to 160 days from the date of the filing of a Senate resignation. The law contemplates resignations that become effective some period of time after the filing of the resignation, so long as the election occurs after effective date of the resignation.^[5]

While terminally ill with brain cancer, Ted Kennedy requested that the Massachusetts legislature change the law to allow an interim appointment. Kennedy died shortly thereafter, and the legislature quickly passed a bill providing for an interim appointment.^[6] On September 24, 2009, Governor Patrick signed the bill and appointed Paul G. Kirk, who had previously served as one of Kennedy's congressional aides and as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kirk stated he would not run in the special election.^[7]

[edit] Class I Senators

Class I U.S. Senators belong to the electoral cycle that were elected for only one U.S. Congress in the first election of 1788/1789, and then the seat was contested again for the 2nd, 5th, and every three Congresses (six years) thereafter. Those seats in recent years have been contested in 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2012.

#	Senator	Took office	Left office	Party	Residence	Background	Congress	Term
1	Tristram Dalton	March 4, 1789 (Elected)	March 3, 1791 (Lost re-election)	Pro-Administration	Newbury	Massachusetts Senate	1	1
2	George Cabot	March 4, 1791 (Elected)	June 9, 1796 (Resigned)	Pro-Administration	Salem	Delegate to the Constitutional Convention	2	2
				Federalist			3
							4
3	Benjamin Goodhue	June 11, 1796 (Elected)	November 8, 1800 (Resigned)	Federalist	Salem	U.S. Representative (10th district)
							5	3
							6
4	Jonathan Mason	November 14, 1800 (Elected)	March 3, 1803	Federalist	Boston	Massachusetts Senate
							7
5	John Quincy Adams	March 4, 1803 (Elected)	June 8, 1808 (Resigned)	Federalist	Boston	Minister to Prussia	8	4
							9
							10
6	James Lloyd	June 9, 1808 (Elected)	May 1, 1813 (Resigned)	Federalist	Boston	Massachusetts Senate
							11	5
							12
							13
7	Christopher Gore	May 5, 1813 (Appointed)	May 30, 1816 (Resigned)	Federalist	Boston	Governor of Massachusetts
							14	6
Vacant		June 1, 1816	June 11, 1816
8	Eli P. Ashmun	June 12, 1816 (Elected)	May 10, 1818 (Resigned)	Federalist	Northampton	Massachusetts Senate
							15
9	Prentiss Mellen	June 5, 1818 (Elected)	May 15, 1820 (Resigned to become Chief Justice of Maine)	Federalist	Portland, Maine	Lawyer
							16
Vacant		May 16, 1820	June 11, 1820
10	Elijah H. Mills	June 12, 1820 (Elected)	March 3, 1827 (Lost re-election)	Adams	Northampton	Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
							17	7
							18
							19
Vacant		March 4, 1827	December 17, 1827				20	8
11	Daniel Webster	December 17, 1827 (Elected)	February 22, 1841 (Resigned)	Adams/Anti-Jackson	Boston	U.S. Representative (1st district)
							21
							22
							23	9
							24
				Whig			25
							26	10
12	Rufus Choate	February 23, 1841 (Elected)	March 3, 1845 (Retired)	Whig	Boston	U.S. Representative (2nd district)
							27
							28
13	Daniel Webster	March 4, 1845 (Elected)	July 22, 1850 (Resigned to become Secretary of State)	Whig	Boston	U.S. Secretary of State	29	11
							30
							31
14	Robert Charles Winthrop	July 30, 1850 (Appointed)	February 1, 1851 (Lost election)	Whig	Boston	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
15	Robert Rantoul, Jr.	February 1, 1851 (Elected only to fill Webster vacancy)	March 3, 1851 (Retired)	Democratic	Boston	U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
Vacant[8]		March 3, 1851	April 24, 1851				32	12
16	Charles Sumner	April 24, 1851 (Elected)	March 11, 1874 (Died)	Free Soil	Boston	Lawyer
							33
				Opposition			34
				Republican			35	13
							36
							37
							38	14
							39
							40
							41	15
							42
							43
Vacant		March 12, 1874	April 16, 1874
17	William B. Washburn	April 17, 1874 (Elected)	March 3, 1875 (Retired)	Republican	Greenfield	Governor of Massachusetts
18	Henry L. Dawes	March 4, 1875 (Elected)	March 3, 1893 (Retired)	Republican	Pittsfield	U.S. Representative (11th district)	44	16
							45
							46
							47	17
							48
							49
							50	18
							51
							52
19	Henry Cabot Lodge	March 4, 1893 (Elected)	November 9, 1924 (Died)	Republican	Nahant	U.S. Representative (6th district)	53	19
							54
							55
							56	20
							57
							58
							59	21
							60
							61
							62	22
							63
							64
							65	23
							66
							67
							68	24
Vacant		November 10, 1924	November 12, 1924
20	William M. Butler	November 13, 1924 (Appointed)	December 6, 1926 (Lost election)	Republican	Boston	Chairman of the Republican National Committee
							69
21	David I. Walsh	December 6, 1926 (Elected)	January 3, 1947 (Lost re-election)	Democratic	Fitchburg	U.S. Senator
							70
							71	25
							72
							73
							74	26
							75
							76
							77	27
							78
							79
22	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	January 3, 1947 (Elected)	January 3, 1953 (Lost re-election)	Republican	Beverly	U.S. Senator (class II)	80	28
							81
							82
23	John F. Kennedy	January 3, 1953 (Elected)	December 22, 1960 (Resigned to become President)	Democratic	Boston	U.S. Representative (11th district)	83	29
							84
							85
							86	30
Vacant		December 23, 1960	December 26, 1960
24	Benjamin A. Smith II	December 27, 1960 (Appointed)	November 7, 1962 (Retired)	Democratic	Gloucester	Mayor of Gloucester
							87
25	Ted Kennedy	November 7, 1962 (Special election)	August 25, 2009 (Died)	Democratic	Boston/Hyannis Port	Lawyer
							88
							89	31
							90
							91
							92	32
							93
							94
							95	33
							96
							97
							98	34
							99
							100
							101	35
							102
							103
							104	36
							105
							106
							107	37
							108
							109
							110	38
							111
Vacant		August 25, 2009	September 24, 2009
26	Paul G. Kirk	September 24, 2009 (Appointed)	Present	Democratic	Marstons Mills	Attorney; Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
#	Senator	Took office	Left office	Party	Residence	Background	Congress	Term

[edit] Class II Senators

Class II U.S. Senators belong to the electoral cycle that were elected for the first two United States Congresses in the first election of 1788 and whose seats in recent years are contested in 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014.

#	Senator	Took office	Left office	Party	Residence	Background	Congress	Term
1	Caleb Strong	March 4, 1789 (Elected)	June 1, 1796 (Resigned)	Pro-Administration	Northampton	Delegate to Constitutional Convention	1	1
							2
							3	2
							4
Vacant		June 2, 1796	June 10, 1796
2	Theodore Sedgwick	June 11, 1796 (Elected)	March 3, 1799	Federalist	Stockbridge	U.S. Representative (1st district)
							5
3	Samuel Dexter	March 4, 1799 (Elected)	May 30, 1800 (Resigned to become Secretary of War)	Federalist	Lunenberg	U.S. Representative (1st district)	6	3
Vacant		June 1, 1800	June 5, 1800
4	Dwight Foster	June 6, 1800 (Elected)	March 2, 1803 (Resigned)	Federalist	Brookfield	U.S. Representative (4th district)
							7
5	Timothy Pickering	March 4, 1803 (Elected)	March 3, 1811 (Lost re-election)	Federalist	Wenham	U.S. Secretary of State	8
							9	4
							10
							11
Vacant		March 4, 1811	June 28, 1811				12	5
6	Joseph Bradley Varnum	June 29, 1811 (Elected)	March 3, 1817	Democratic-Republican	Dracut	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
							13
							14
7	Harrison Gray Otis	March 4, 1817 (Elected)	May 30, 1822 (Resigned)	Federalist	Boston	Massachusetts Senate	15	6
							16
							17
8	James Lloyd	June 5, 1822	May 23, 1826	Federalist	Boston	U.S. Senator
							18	7
				Adams			19
9	Nathaniel Silsbee	May 31, 1826	March 3, 1835	Adams/ Anti-Jackson	Salem	U.S. Representative (2nd district)
							20
							21	8
							22
							23
10	John Davis	March 4, 1835 (Elected)	January 5, 1841	Anti-Jackson	Worcester	Governor of Massachusetts	24	9
				Whig			25
							26
11	Isaac C. Bates	January 13, 1841	March 16, 1845	Whig	Northampton	U.S. Representative (8th district)
							27	10
							28
							29
12	John Davis	March 24, 1845	March 3, 1853	Whig	Worcester	Governor of Massachusetts
							30	11
							31
							32
13	Edward Everett	March 4, 1853 (Elected)	June 1, 1854 (resigned)	Whig	Boston	U.S. Secretary of State	33	12
14	Julius Rockwell	June 3, 1854 (Appointed)	January 31, 1855 (Resigned)	Whig	Pittsfield	U.S. Representative (7th district)
15	Henry Wilson	January 31, 1855 (Elected)	March 3, 1873 (Resigned to become Vice President)	Free Soil	Natick	Newspaper Publisher
				Know-nothing			34
				Opposition
				Republican			35
							36	13
							37
							38
							39	14
							40
							41
							42	15
16	George S. Boutwell	March 17, 1873	March 3, 1877	Republican	Groton	U.S. Secretary of the Treasury	43
							44
17	George Frisbie Hoar	March 4, 1877 (Elected)	September 30, 1904 (Died)	Republican	Worcester	U.S. Representative (9th district)	45	16
							46
							47
							48	17
							49
							50
							51	18
							52
							53
							54	19
							55
							56
							57	20
							58
18	Winthrop Murray Crane	October 12, 1904	March 3, 1913	Republican	Dalton	Governor of Massachusetts
							59
							60	21
							61
							62
19	John W. Weeks	March 4, 1913 (Elected)	March 3, 1919	Republican	West Newton	U.S. Representative (12th district)	63	22
							64
							65
20	David I. Walsh	March 4, 1919 (Elected)	March 3, 1925	Democratic	Fitchburg	Governor of Massachusetts	66	23
							67
							68
21	Frederick H. Gillett	March 4, 1925 (Elected)	March 3, 1931	Republican	Springfield	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives	69	24
							70
							71
22	Marcus A. Coolidge	March 4, 1931 (Elected)	January 3, 1937 (Retired)	Democratic	Fitchburg	Businessman	72	25
							73
							74
23	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	January 3, 1937 (Elected)	February 3, 1944 (Resigned)	Republican	Beverly	Massachusetts House of Representatives	75	26
							76
							77
							78	27
Vacant		February 4, 1944	February 7, 1945
24	Sinclair Weeks	February 8, 1944 (Appointed)	December 19, 1944 (Retired)	Republican	West Newton	Treasurer of the Republican National Committee
Vacant		December 20, 1944	January 3, 1945	Sinclair Weeks retired early and his replacement was already elected.
25	Leverett Saltonstall	January 3, 1945 (Won special election)	January 3, 1967 (Retired)	Republican	Dover	Governor of Massachusetts	79
							80
							81	28
							82
							83
							84	29
							85
							86
							87	30
							88
							89
26	Edward Brooke	January 3, 1967 (Elected)	January 3, 1979 (Lost re-election)	Republican	Newton Centre	Attorney General of Massachusetts	90	31
							91
							92
							93	32
							94
							95
27	Paul Tsongas	January 3, 1979 (Elected)	January 2, 1985 (Retired & resigned 1 day early to give successor preferential seniority)	Democratic	Lowell	U.S. Representative (5th district)	96	33
							97
							98
28	John Kerry	January 2, 1985 (Elected, but took seat early due to appointment)	Incumbent	Democratic	Boston	Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
							99	34
							100
							101
							102	35
							103
							104
							105	36
							106
							107
							108	37
							109
							110
							111	38
#	Senator	Took office	Left office	Party	Residence	Background	Congress	Term

[edit] References