The 17th Amendment

The Direct Election of Senators

The 17th Amendment

Senator Moreno

Senator Husted

Every state in the United States has 2 Senators that represent the state in the Senate. Senators serve 6 year terms. In 2025, Ohio's Senators were Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno.

Senators Brown and Vance talk during a hearing

The position of Senator is a very important one - there are only 100 Senators, and they serve a pretty long term once elected. In all 50 states, citizens vote for the two Senators who will represent them in the Senate. However, it was not always like this...

Read the excerpt from Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution, and then answer the question on the right side of the page.

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"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote."

Article 1 Section 3

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Originally it was the state governments (specifically the state legislatures) who picked Senators. The citizens did not get to vote on who their Senators were.

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A series of scandalous elections and under-the-table dealings led people to start thinking that a change was needed in how Senators are selected.

Changes Needed

An example of the corruption that occured before the 17th Amendment: William A. Clark, an entrepreneur from Montana, very badly wanted to become one of the Senators from the state of Montana. Being a Senator could allow him to support laws that benefited himself and his business. Clark bribed members of the Montana State Legislature to give him the position of Senator in 1899. When this was discovered, his position as Senator was voided. In the cartoon to the right, we can see Clark depicted as bribing members of Congress with large sums of cash. In response to criticism, Clark reportedly said "I never bought a man who wasn't for sale."

Clark buys a newspaper in 1906.

William A. Clark was one of the richest Americans to ever live. He died at the age of 86 with a net worth of $300 million, which would be worth about $4 billion today. How many other Senate positions were for sale or were being given to the rich? People began to question why they didn't have a say in who became the state Senators!

View the political cartoon on the left of the page, and the answer the question to continue.

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Correct! Click on each blue dot on the image to learn more about this political cartoon.

People could see the failings of the system by which Senators were selected, which resulted in many loudly demanding an Amendment to fix the problem.A series of essays titled "The Treason of the Senate" in 1906 exposed more corruption in the Senate and how closely linked money and politics had become.

Besides corruption, another need for the 17th Amendment was that if the members of the legislature from a state had to vote a Senator in, it was very easy to have a tie and stall the process greatly. Between 1891 and 1905, 46 Senate elections held by state legislative branches ended up being tied or in one extreme example, a Senate seat in Delaware went unfilled from 1899 to 1903. In 1897, the Oregon state legislature could not break a tie over who should be Senator, so they passed no laws that year in protest.

Accused Senators

To the left, click on the icon under the name of each of the four Senators. Each of these Senators were listed in the "Treason of the Senate" writings. Keep in mind that each of these Senators were not voted for by the citizens...they were selected by the legislature in their states. If you were a citizen in one of these states, you knew that these Senators were primarily looking out for their own political and business connections and not you.

Depew

Chauncey

Aldrich

Nelson

Spooner

John

Gorman

Arthur

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall haf the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures."

17th Amendment Text

17th Amendment Text

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall haf the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures."

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The addition of the 17th amendment put the voting powers for Senators into the hands of citizens. This should remind us of the principle of popular sovereignty that we looked at earlier in this class! Today, we are able to vote directly for our Senators, and not rely on someone else choosing them for us.