US Senators of the 113th Congress: Part 3 Quiz

Answer: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Warren suggested the creation of the CFPB as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform. It was speculated that President Obama would have nominated her to lead the bureau but believed she was too polarizing a figure to be confirmed by the Senate. Obama nominated Richard Cordray instead.

Answer: True

Markey served in the House of Representatives for 36 years before being elected to the Senate in 2013. The old record was held by Frederick H. Gillett who served in the House for 32 years and was even Speaker for almost six years. Coincidentally, Gillett also held the same Senate seat as Markey, the Massachusetts Class 2 seat.

Answer: Detroit

While on the council, Levin was noted for having a close relationship with Coleman Young, Detroit's first African-American mayor. Levin served for four years as the President of the Detroit City Council.

Answer: Pete Hoekstra

Stabenow defeated Hoekstra 59%-38%. The race was initially thought to be at least somewhat competitive since Michigan is only a slightly Democratic state, but Hoekstra gaffed early on even before the primaries. He had aired an ad that featured an Asian-American woman bicycling through a rice paddy and thanking "Debbie Spend-it-now." The ad continued on and featured a number of Asian-American stereotypes and was panned as offensive. Stabenow surged in the polls from that point on.

Answer: Her fight for funding after the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapsed

Barely six months after Sen. Klobuchar took office, Minnesota faced a crisis when the I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed killing 13 people and injuring 145. Klobuchar gained notoriety for aggressively fighting for federal funding to rebuild the bridge and bring awareness that many bridges around the nation were structurally unsound.

Answer: Saturday Night Live

Franken gained a reputation for being somewhat of a controversial comedian for his jokes ridiculing conservative politicians. On at least one occasion, Franken was forced to apologize for mocking another senator (Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell) while he was performing the duties of the chair.

Answer: Chris McDaniel

The Republican primary was brutal and allegations of misconduct ran rampant against both Cochran and McDaniel. Cochran was accused of pandering to African-American voters, who trend Democratic, which lead McDaniel to accuse the senator of buying votes and said the Republican Party was decided by Democrats. Cochran responded by saying that traditionally, he receives more support from African-Americans than the typical Southern Republican does.

McDaniel and his supporters were accused of breaking into the nursing home where Sen. Cochran's wife, who suffers from dementia, lives and took pictures of her to use against Cochran.

Answer: A ricin letter

The letter appeared to be a vague message that contained a vague warning that the writer was not listened to and someone would die. When tested, Wicker's letter was found to contain ricin, however, the letter was intercepted before he could open it.

Answer: Pregnancy from rape

Akin's exact comment was "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." This caused an immediate uproar since the statement implied that some kinds of rapes were legitimate and others were not. Akin was portrayed as misogynistic for his comment. Fact checkers and health experts also said his comment was completely inaccurate.

He apologized but it was too late to save his campaign and McCaskill defeated him 55%-39%.

Answer: Missouri Secretary of State

Roy Blunt was Missouri Secretary of State from 1985-1993 while his son held that spot from 2001-2005 when he became Governor. The older Blunt also served briefly as House Majority Leader in 2005-06.

Answer: True

In 2006, Tester defeated incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns 49%-48%. In 2012, Tester was reelected over Rep. Denny Rehberg 48%-45%.

Answer: Plagiarism

Walsh was accused of plagiarizing a research paper while working toward his Master's degree in 2007. Walsh admitted the error, but made things worse when he blamed it on PTSD from serving in the Iraq War.

Answer: U.S. Representative for Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District

Johanns was Mayor of Lincoln from 1991-1999 when he resigned to become Governor. He resigned the governorship in 2005 when President George W. Bush appointed him to be Secretary of Agriculture. He ran for Senate in 2008 and won with 57% of the vote.

Answer: False

Fischer is the first woman to be elected to the Senate from Nebraska for a full term. Previous female senators Eva Bowring was appointed and Hazel Abel was elected in a special election but not for a full term.

Answer: Bill Frist

Bill Frist was the Republican leader when the Republicans were in control, but lost the position when Democrats won the Senate in the 2006 elections. Reid, who was the Minority Leader, became the Majority Leader.

Answer: John Ensign

John Ensign was accused of having an affair with the wife of a staffer. He was then accused of trying to secure that staffer a lobbying job, which was forbidden by law.

Heller received only 45.8% of the vote in 2012, despite it being only a two-person race.

Answer: Serve as both a state governor and U.S. senator

Shaheen was elected New Hampshire Governor in 1997 and served through 2003. In 2002, she did not run for reelection but instead ran for the Senate. She lost to Sen. John Sununu in a very close race. In 2008, she defeated Sununu in a rematch.

Answer: The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court

The Federal District Court for the District of New Hampshire and the First Circuit of Appeals Court both found the law unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court sent the case back for further review and did not make a decision otherwise. The New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act was repealed before the lower court made a new decision.

Answer: Foreign Affairs

John Kerry resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of State, a Cabinet position that works closely with the Foreign Affairs committee. Menendez was selected to chair the committee as he was the most senior senator on the committee who did not already chair another committee.

Answer: Twitter

Booker has been dubbed "The Mayor of Twitter" and follows quite a large number of diverse people. He received some minor flak for a conversation he had with an adult film star on Twitter but defended himself by saying he was a single man and often starts conversations with many people who tweet to him.