PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Rhode Island: U.S. Senators

U.S. Senators from Rhode Island, 1790-2018 (May be incomplete!)
Theodore Foster 1790-1803 Joseph Stanton, Jr. 1790-93 William Bradford 1793-97 Ray Greene 1797-1801 Christopher Ellery 1801-05 Samuel J. Potter 1803-04 Benjamin Howland 1804-09 James Fenner 1805-07 Elisha Mathewson 1807-11 Francis Malbone 1809 Christopher G. Champlin 1809-11 Jeremiah Brown Howell 1811-17 William Hunter 1811-21 James Burrill, Jr. 1817-20 Nehemiah R. Knight 1821-41 James De Wolf 1821-27 Asher Robbins 1825-39 Nathan Fellows Dixon 1839-42 James F. Simmons 1841-47 William Sprague 1842-44 John Brown Francis 1844-45 Albert C. Greene 1845-51 John Hopkins Clarke 1847-53 Charles T. James 1851-57 Philip Allen 1853-59 James F. Simmons 1857-62 Henry B. Anthony 1859-84 Samuel G. Arnold 1862-63 William Sprague 1863-75 Ambrose E. Burnside 1875-81 Nelson W. Aldrich 1881-1911 William Paine Sheffield 1884-85 Jonathan Chace 1885-89 Nathan F. Dixon 1889-95 George P. Wetmore 1895-1907 George P. Wetmore 1908-13 Henry F. Lippitt 1911-17 LeBaron B. Colt 1913-24 Peter G. Gerry 1917-29 Jesse H. Metcalf 1924-37 Felix Hébert 1929-35 Peter G. Gerry 1935-47 Theodore F. Green 1937-61 J. Howard McGrath 1947-49 Edward L. Leahy 1949-50 John O. Pastore 1950-76 Claiborne Pell 1961-97 John H. Chafee 1976-99 Jack Reed 1997- Lincoln Chafee 1999-2007 Sheldon Whitehouse 2007-

Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1804: Samuel J. Potter, died in office.
  • 1809 Jun 4: Francis Malbone, died in office.
  • 1811 Oct 2: Christopher G. Champlin, resigned.
  • 1820 Dec 25: James Burrill, Jr., died in office.
  • 1842 Jan 29: Nathan Fellows Dixon, died in office.
  • 1881 Sep 13: Ambrose E. Burnside, died in office.
  • 1884 Sep 2: Henry B. Anthony, died in office.
  • 1889 Apr 9: Jonathan Chace, resigned.
  • 1916 Nov 7: Peter G. Gerry (Dem), elected; Henry F. Lippitt (Rep), defeated; Frederick W. A. Hurst (Socialist), defeated; Frank J. Sibley (Prohibition), defeated; Peter McDermott (Socialist Labor), defeated.
  • 1918 Nov 5: LeBaron B. Colt (Rep), elected; George F. O'Shaunessy (Dem), defeated; Frederick W. A. Hurst (Socialist), defeated.
  • 1922 Nov 7: Peter G. Gerry (Dem), elected; R. Livingston Beeckman (Rep), defeated; James I. Bartholomew (Law and Order), defeated; James Matthews (Socialist Labor), defeated.
  • 1924 Aug 18: LeBaron B. Colt, died in office.
  • 1924 Nov 4: Jesse H. Metcalf (Rep), elected; William S. Flynn (Dem), defeated; James P. Reid (Workers), defeated; Edward M. Sullivan (Liberal Independent), defeated; Peter McDermott (Socialist Labor), defeated.
  • 1928 Nov 6: Felix Hébert (Rep), elected; Peter G. Gerry (Dem), defeated; James P. Reid (Workers), defeated.
  • 1930 Nov 4: Jesse H. Metcalf (Rep), elected; Peter G. Gerry (Dem), defeated; Charles F. Bishop (Socialist Labor), defeated.
  • 1936 Nov 3: Theodore F. Green (Dem), elected; Jesse H. Metcalf (Rep), defeated; Ludger L. LaPointe (Union), defeated.
  • 1940 Nov 5: Peter G. Gerry (Dem), elected; James O. McManus (Rep), defeated.
  • 1942 Nov 3: Theodore F. Green (Dem), elected; Ira Lloyd Letts (Rep), defeated.
  • 1946 Nov 5: J. Howard McGrath (Dem), elected; W. Gurnee Dyer (Rep), defeated.
  • 1960: Dennis J. Roberts, defeated for nomination.
  • 1960: J. Howard McGrath (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 1964 Nov 3: John O. Pastore (Dem), elected; Ronald R. Lagueux (Rep), defeated.
  • 1966 Nov 8: Claiborne Pell (Dem), elected; Ruth M. Briggs (Rep), defeated.
  • 1970 Nov 3: John O. Pastore (Dem), elected; John McLaughlin (Rep), defeated; David N. Fenton (Peace and Freedom), defeated; Daniel B. Fein (Socialist Workers), defeated.
  • 1972 Nov 7: Claiborne Pell (Dem), elected; John H. Chafee (Rep), defeated; John Quattrocchi, Jr. (Ind), defeated; Patrick M. DeTemple (Socialist Workers), defeated.
  • 1976: Philip W. Noel (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 1976 Nov 2: John H. Chafee (Rep), elected; Richard P. Lorber (Dem), defeated; Margaret R. Cann (Communist), defeated.
  • 1978 Nov 7: Claiborne Pell (Dem), elected; James G. Reynolds (Rep), defeated.
  • 1982 Nov 2: John H. Chafee (Rep), elected; Julius C. Michaelson (Dem), defeated.
  • 1984 Nov 6: Claiborne Pell (Dem), elected; Barbara M. Leonard (Rep), defeated.
  • 1988 Nov 8: John H. Chafee (Rep), elected; Richard A. Licht (Dem), defeated.
  • 1990 Nov 6: Claiborne Pell (Dem), elected; Claudine Schneider (Rep), defeated.
  • 1994 Nov 8: John H. Chafee (Rep), elected; Linda J. Kushner (Dem), defeated.
  • 1996 Nov 5: Jack Reed (Dem), elected; Nancy J. Mayer (Rep), defeated; Donald W. Lovejoy (Ind), defeated.
  • 1999 Oct 24: John H. Chafee, died in office.
  • 1999 Nov 2: Lincoln Chafee, appointed.
  • 2000 Nov 7: Lincoln Chafee (Rep), elected; Robert A. Weygand (Dem), defeated; Christopher F. Young (Reform), defeated; Kenneth P. Proulx (Ind), defeated.
  • 2002 Nov 5: Jack Reed (Dem), elected; Robert G. Tingle (Rep), defeated.
  • 2006: Sheldon Whitehouse (Dem), elected.
  • 2006 Sep 12: Christopher F. Young (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 2008 Sep 9: Christopher F. Young (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 2008 Nov 4: Christopher F. Young (Ind), defeated.
    • "Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
    Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872    		 The Political Graveyard

    The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 338,260 politicians, living and dead.
     
      The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.  
      The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.  
      Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.  
      The official URL for this page is: https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/RI/ofc/ussen.html.  
      Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.  
      If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.  
    Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2025 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
    What is a "political graveyard"? See Political Dictionary; Urban Dictionary.
    Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDLmi.com. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on February 17, 2025.