New Senators' Maiden Speeches Fuse Tradition, Expediency
Just eight days after the 114th Congress convened and new senators were sworn in back in January, Louisiana freshman Bill Cassidy took to the chamber floor to speak for his first time, arguing in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline. Later that month, two other first-term senators gave their maiden speeches, both also supporting approval of the controversial pipeline. The rest of the new class’s addresses trickled out in the months that followed. Sen. Gary Peters, the lone Democrat in the group, gave his introductory speech two weeks ago, leaving Nebraska’s Ben Sasse as the only newcomer who has yet to formally speak on the Senate floor.
In a chamber laden with traditions dating back more than two centuries, the maiden speech of first-term senators is among the more enduring, even if the ritual is not quite what it once was. Accordingly, each member of this year’s new crop approached his or her initial speech differently, fusing the personal and the political in varying ways.
Cassidy and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan spoke on behalf of legislation approving the Keystone pipeline, which passed the chamber at the end of January but was vetoed by President Obama. (North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis also spoke about Keystone that month, but told RealClearPolitics he didn’t count that as his official maiden speech, which he plans to give sometime in the next several weeks). Sen. Tom Cotton spoke for nearly half an hour in March on foreign policy just one week after his highly publicized open letter to Iranian leaders, warning that a nuclear deal with the current administration could be undone by the next.
Some senators used the maiden speech as a way to introduce legislation on topics of special importance to them. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran, spoke about the armed forces and introduced a bill prioritizing access to mental health services for veterans. South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a former governor, spoke about overregulation and introduced a resolution to create a select committee to review rules enacted by federal agencies.
Other senators didn’t focus on a specific issue or topic, but rather spoke about their home states, their personal or family history, and their vision for their time in the upper chamber. Montana’s Steve Daines, who delivered his speech in March, said making such an address is about “putting in a summary of the values you stand for, why you decided to run for the United States Senate and what you want to see done for our country.”
In the early 20th century, it wasn’t uncommon for senators to wait more than a year before taking this step, a delay that showed humility and deference to senior lawmakers, according to the official Senate website. Indeed, Wisconsin Sen. Robert La Follette gave his first major address after three months in 1906, a time frame the website described as “an astoundingly brief period by the standards of that day.” In contrast, eight of this year’s 13 freshman senators spoke in their first three months on the job.
There is some debate among the current crop as to whether these addresses actually qualified as maiden speeches in the traditional sense. Tillis, for example, spoke on the Senate floor for the first time in January, making a five-minute speech in support of the Keystone pipeline. Though there is a C-SPAN cliplabeling it his “maiden speech,” Tillis told RealClearPolitics he disagrees with that designation; it was simply the first time he spoke. Several other senators, including Daines and Peters, also spoke on the floor before their making their official address.
Cassidy, who was the first to speak -- just a week after being sworn in -- told RCP he “probably underrated the significance of a maiden speech,” but noted that the Keystone pipeline was an important topic to him, and he wanted to be part of the debate.
Though Tillis was one of the first to hold forth on the Senate floor, he said he’d probably be one of the last to give that official introductory address, telling RCP it would probably come sometime before the August recess.
Some others see such distinctions differently. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner jokingly told RCP there had been “some fudging” by his colleagues in this regard, but that he is a “purist” who made sure his maiden speech, delivered in mid-March, was in fact the first time he spoke on the Senate floor. Sen. David Perdue opened his maiden speech in April by saying, “Out of respect, I have waited until we passed the 100-day mark to deliver this speech.”
Gardner said his office was “overly nerdish” about that first address. They asked the Congressional Research Service for a report on the maiden speeches, including how long most senators wait before giving theirs, and providing some background into the history of the tradition.
“For us, it was a matter of a couple of things: number one, getting a feel for procedure, getting a feel for rules and how the Senate works,” Gardner explained. “Number two, waiting for the right time with the issues in Colorado, and the issues here, to make a statement. And three, doing it in a way that wasn’t jumping the gun, so to speak, being able to build respect and build some camaraderie first, but doing it early enough that we could still participate in the budget debate.”
Sasse’s thinking falls along those same lines. The Nebraska Republican earned a PhD in American history at Yale University, and he told RCP in a statement that given his background, he wanted to stay true to the Senate’s past.
"As a historian by training, I have great respect for the traditions of the Senate – including taking my time to deliver my maiden speech,” he said. “When I do speak I want it to be in the context of having gotten to know a significant number of my colleagues personally and learned enough about the Senate as an institution to say something meaningful.”
Beyond deciding what to talk about and when to speak, there are other considerations that can make the speech a more personal milestone. Daines talked about the century and a half his family has resided in Montana. Shelly Moore Capito mentioned her grandchildren, and also talked at length about the long history of West Virginia’s senators. Peters gave his speech in June because his wife was in Washington for the president’s annual congressional picnic, which meant she and the couple’s daughter could be in the chamber to hear the address. James Lankford (pictured), whose family was also in the chamber for his speech, told RCP that he researched and wrote his address himself and that his staff didn’t see it before he read it on the floor.
He spoke on the National Day of Prayer, May 7, and closed his comments with a prayer, something he felt was “entirely appropriate” given the timing. Noting that he would pray for the nation as well as work for it, he earned a smattering of applause in the chamber when he concluded.
Family members aren’t the only important witnesses to these milestone events. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell makes an effort to attend the maiden speeches of all new Republican senators. Speaking after Lankford’s, he called it “an insightful assessment of the challenges facing our country and an extraordinary list of solutions to those challenges, not to mention reminding us all that we are the envy of the world.”
McConnell also spoke after Rounds addressed overregulation, congratulating the junior senator from South Dakota for “focusing on what I think is the single biggest problem confronting our country.” Rounds also was congratulated by his fellow Mount Rushmore State senator, John Thune, the third-ranking Republican in the chamber.
On the Democratic side, there was only one maiden speech, but Minority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Whip Dick Durbin and Debbie Stabenow, the senior senator from Michigan, all attended and showered praise on Peters after his address last month. Peters talked about his family’s history in Michigan, along with issues such as the auto industry, infrastructure, and research and development, noting their importance to his home state.
Despite the planning that often goes into these key moments in a lawmaker’s life, things don’t always go as originally mapped out. Rounds prepared to deliver his speech on May 20, but that was the day Rand Paul spent more than 10 hours on the Senate floor filibustering to block reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Rounds wound up delivering his speech 12 days later, and laughed when asked about the incident, saying he wasn’t frustrated because that’s “just part of the process.” In fact, he added that it might have increased attention to the fact that he was preparing to give a maiden speech.
Though all the new senators have experience speaking in public, either on the campaign trail or in their previous positions – many of them formerly served in the House of Representatives – the first speech as a senator remains a significant moment. Gardner admitted he was nervous, but said that’s not unusual when he speaks in the chamber.
“I will tell you, I get nervous,” he said. “I always got nervous speaking on the House floor and I get nervous talking on the Senate floor, and the day I’m not nervous is the day I need to go home. There’s a lot of weight, both historical and significant responsibility, to go with it.”
Conversely, Lankford said he didn’t feel any particular excitement walking off the floor after completing his address.
“It was just another day,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound flippant about it, but it was just another day. A maiden speech doesn’t solve all the problems of the nation, it was just laying out a set of ideas and saying okay, let’s get to work.”
