Every time there is a senatorial election in the U.S., all the seats in the House are also up for grabs. That means that anyone from the House who wants to run for the Senate has to leave his seat vacant and “take a chance” being left out in the cold if he loses. This is, of course, does not apply to offices where the term does not end at the same time as the Senatorial election (many Governors, Mayors and other elected officials) where if he loses, he can still remain in his job.
But then, I began wondering if there was really anything really preventing a person from running simultaneously for the Senate and his current House seat (with the understanding that if he wins both elections, he would resign from the House). As I thought about it, I realized that there was even precedent for this sort of thing - Joseph Leiberman ran for both Vice President in 2000, and for his Senate seat (in retrospect, a very wise move). Of course, he lost the Vice Presidential election (Dems, feel free to insert “He really won…” diatribe here ) but retained his Senate seat by winning that election.
That being said, can a Representative run for both the House and Senate at the same time. And if so, how come we don’t see it happening very often (if at all)?
No idea if any state precludes by law running for both offices or even holding both offices at once (the Constitution doesn’t forbid it), but as for why it doesn’t happen…from a practical standpoint is a candidacy for the Senate going to be taken seriously by the state if the candidate is also running for a House seat? Imagine the campaign ads: “Vote for Smith for Senate. Or House. Or both!” Lieberman took some flack for running for VP and Senate simultaneously. Financially running both campaigns would be prohibitively expensive, and there may be FEC or state regulations about money being spent on one campaign somehow benefitting the other.
I think this would be actively discouraged by the parties, if not by the states as well. If someone wins both, and then resigns their House postion, there would have to be a new election for that District to get a replacement. This costs lots of money.
I don’t think every state would require a special election. Some states, I think, allow for appointment to fill an unexpired term. Which could lead to the odd scenario of the person taking the oath of office for the House seat, immediately resigning it to create an unexpired term and then taking the oath for the Senate seat.
I’m not sure if it has ever happened in a general election, but I do know of a time in which it occured in a primary election:
In 1968, Rep. John Dent (D-PA) ran for both renomination for the House (which he gained) and nomination for the US Senate (he lost to incumbent Sen. Joseph Clark).
I’m assuming there’s no law stating which office the candidate must resign. For example, if Joe Lieberman had won both his Senate seat and the Vice Presidency, he could in theory have decided to resign as Vice President and serve in the Senate?
Since elections are run under state law, it is up to the states to decide whether this can be done. In Missouri, for instance, it cannot. In the last election, then-Congressman Richard Gephardt could not run for reelection if he also ran for President. He chose to retire from the House, so it didn’t matter, but when he had made a previous presidential attempt (1992?), he had to time his dropping out of the race for the presidency early enough to file as a candidate for the House.
I remember reading the Richard Nixon followed the California custom of running for Congress in both the Republican and Democratic primaries, and in at least one election, won the nomination of both parties.
State law generally forbids running for multiple offices at once. For example, in the Illinois Election Code we find the following:
I think that such provisions are fairly typical, although to judge by Governor Quinn’s post they are apparently not universal.
Note that the foregoing wouldn’t apply to a Lieberman-type situation in Illinois, since a candidate for Vice-President wouldn’t run on the state primary ballot. I didn’t find anything in the Election Code that would preclude an Illinoisan from running for Vice President and another office at the same time, although I didn’t look very carefully. Such provisions must have been in force in some states at some points in time, because I remember reading that Lyndon Johnson had to have Texas state law changed so that he could run for Vice President and Senator in 1960.
LBJ in 1960, and Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, both ran for Vice President at the same time as they were running for reelection to their U.S. Senate seats. Texas law specifically permitted them to do so.
To answer the OP: in Ohio, you couldn’t run for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate simultaneously. You’d face the same filing deadline for both posts, and by law your name may only appear on the ballot once, for one job (at any level, IIRC).
Yes and its called the LBJ Law as it was passed in 1959 for his benefit. Texas law I believe does allow you to run for any two seats simultaneously. Other states have an LBJ law that actually requires that one of the simultaneous office be for that of the Presidency or Vice Presidency. (Missouri I believe)
Lieberman was able to run as CT has no law barring someone from running for two offices simultaneously. In 2008, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and Joe Biden, all of who are considering a run, hail from states with no prohibition on running for two offices.
) but retained his Senate seat by winning that election.