Here's a question from Scott Porter of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.:

In all the coverage about [former] Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, I keep hearing that he was the longest serving Republican senator in history. What about Strom Thurmond? Stevens couldn't have been in the Senate longer than Thurmond?

Ted Stevens served in the Senate from Dec. 24, 1968, when he was appointed to fill the seat of the late Bob Bartlett (D), until he left office last Jan. 3, following his 2008 defeat at the hands of Democrat Mark Begich.

Strom Thurmond, as you correctly note, was in the Senate longer: He was first elected in 1954, as a write-in candidate (the only one in history), but he fulfilled a promise that he would resign his seat in 1956 and then run again, as a Democrat, which he was and which he did. He won that 1956 special election, and was re-elected in 1960.

It wasn't until Sept. 16, 1964 that Thurmond — a fan of Barry Goldwater's (R) presidential campaign and opposed to President Lyndon Johnson (D) and his policies — left the Democrats and switched to the GOP. Thurmond was re-elected as a Republican in 1966, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1990 and 1996. He retired from the Senate after 2002 and died on June 26, 2003.

Thurmond was the longest serving senator at his retirement, a record since broken by West Virginia's Robert Byrd (D). But he only served as a Republican from 1964 until 2002 — 38 years and three-plus months. Stevens, a Republican his entire Senate career, served in that capacity a shade over 40 years ... and thus, more than any other Republican in Senate history.

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