Minnesota has the most living former U.S. senators with eight, says Eric Ostermeier of the Humphrey School, as he discusses the death of Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia on his Smart Politics blog and looks at the 167 ex-Senators who are still alive.
Byrd, who died Tuesday, is the third senator to die this year, notes Ostermeier: sitting Democratic Sen.Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and former Democratic Sen. William Hathaway of Maine also have died.
Minnesota’s eight living ex-senators are:
- Walter Mondale
- Wendell Anderson
- Rudy Boschwitz
- Dave Durenberger
- Rod Grams
- Dean Barkley
- Mark Dayton
- Norm Coleman
That puts us ahead of Colorado and Tennessee, which each have seven, and Georgia and Illinois, with six each.
Every state has at least one, but six states have just one: Hawaii, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Byrd had been the oldest ex-senator, at 98 years, 7 months. Now the oldest is Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke (served 1967-1979). He’s 93 and 9 months.
