According to news reports, Senator Blunt is considering running for a party leadership position in the Senate, in the wake of Senator Alexander’s announcement that he will be stepping down as Republican Conference Chair in January. This got me thinking about congressional history. Senator Blunt, you see, served in the leadership in the House prior to his election to the Senate.

And thus a question: how many times has someone served in both the House leadership and the Senate leadership?

In order to make the analysis easier, we’ll limit it to top leadership posts in both chambers (Speaker, Majority/Minority Leader, and Majority/Minority Whip), and we’ll restrict ourselves to the 20th century, when the non-Speaker leadership positions became more formalized.

We can break the question into two parts. First: how many Members who served in a top House leadership position have gone on to serve in the Senate (or vice-versa)?

Theoretically, we shouldn’t expect too many. While it’s true that many (if not most) Representatives would jump at a good opportunity to join the Senate, it’s also the case that doing so resets all of your seniority and accumulated power. Therefore, we should expect that, all else equal, Members of the House with significant power and/or seniority should be less likely to seek a Senate seat.

According to my quick run of the data, 341 people have served in both the House and Senate since 1900. Of those 341, only six had served in the top leadership posts in the House at some point during their career:

• Oscar Underwood (D-AL), who served as Whip and Majority/Minority Leader;
• James Watson (R-IN), who served as Whip;
• Frederick Gillett (R-MA), who served as Speaker;
• John Sparkman (D-AL), who served as Whip;
• Trent Lott (R-MS), who served as Whip; and
• Roy Blunt (R-MO), who served as Whip and (interim) Majority Leader

Underwood, Sparkman, and Lott were elected to the Senate while serving in the House leadership. Watson, Gillett, and Blunt had previously served, but were not currently top leaders at the time of their Senate election.

Second question: did any of these men go on to serve in the Senate leadership? Yes.

Lott, as many people undoubtedly remember, was Majority Leader; Underwood and Watson were also Majority Leader. Gillett only served one term in the Senate. Sparkman, as it turns out, is the only one of them who had a long Senate career, but never served in the leadership. And Blunt, evidently, is seeking to start a climb up the leadership.

So 3 of 5 served in the Senate leadership, and Blunt may very well someday make it 4 of 6.

This probably says something about the ambition track.  That 2/3 of the House leaders who went on to the Senate either served in leadership or look like they will seek service in the leadership probably indicates that such a preference is not only constrained by the institutional context and contingent events during ones career, but also by the personal characteristics and preferences Members bring to Congress. It’s unlikely that the institutional context in which these men arrived in the Senate just happen to once again make the leadership path an obvious choice; far more likely is that these men were natural leaders, and sought the jobs independent of context.