Missouri State Senate
Facts about the Missouri Senate

(Updated 1/29/03)

  • The Missouri Senate currently has 34 members -- 27 men and 7 women.

  • The Senate has 16 standing committees.

  • Occupationally, the Senate has 15 businessmen engaged in real estate, insurance, finance, etc.; 1 publisher, 1 physician, 2 educators, 4 farmers, 6 attorneys, 1 caseworker and 4 public servants.

  • The average age of current members of the Missouri Senate is 55.

  • Senator Michael Kinney was the oldest senator who ever served and served the longest, 56 years. He was elected in 1912 and retired in 1968 at the age of 93.

  • Missouri's first woman senator, Mary Gant, served from 1972 until 1980.

  • At least 42 Missouri Senators have attained higher statewide office or became a U.S. senator or congressman for Missouri.

  • Senator J. O. Morrison and Sen. James L. Mathewson were the longest serving presidents pro tem in Missouri history. They each served for eight years.

  • Senator Theodore McNeal, elected in 1960, was Missouri's first African-American senator.

  • More than half of all senators reside in one of Missouri's three largest metropolitan areas (Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield).

  • Senator Gwen Giles, elected in 1977, was the first African-American woman to serve as a Missouri senator.

  • Twenty-five current state senators have served previously in the Missouri House of Representatives.

  • Each senator represents a district of approximately 164,000 people.

  • The geographic size of senatorial districts ranges from a few square miles in some urban areas to 16 counties in some rural areas.

  • Twenty senators are Republicans, and 14 are Democrats.

  • The Legislature is in session from early January to mid-May each year.

  • Senators meet in Jefferson City from midafternoon Mondays to midafternoon Thursdays.

  • Senators are paid an annual salary of $31,351.

  • All Senate meetings are open to the public and the media.

  • The shortest bill introduced in the Senate was one line long. One of the longest bills introduced was SB 52 (897 pages) in 1993.

  • Some of the most debated subjects in the Senate are taxes, education and crime.

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