Dean of the United States House of Representatives


The Dean of the United States House of Representatives is the longest continuously serving member of the House. The current Dean is Don Young, a Republican Party representative from Alaska who has served since 1973, and is the first Republican Dean in more than eighty years, as well as the first from Alaska. Additionally, with the death of John Conyers, Young is currently the only living Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Dean is a symbolic post whose only customary duty is to swear in a Speaker of the House after they are elected. The Dean comes forward on the House Floor to administer the oath to the Speaker-elect, before the new Speaker then administers the oath to the other members.
While the Dean does swear in newly elected Speakers, they do not preside over the election of a Speaker, as do the Father of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the Dean of the Canadian House of Commons.
Because of other privileges associated with seniority, the Dean is usually allotted some of the most desirable office space, and is generally either chair or ranking minority member of an influential committee.
It is unclear when the position first achieved concrete recognition, though the seniority system and increasing lengths of service emerged in the early 20th century. As late as 1924, Frederick H. Gillett was Dean, and also Speaker, before becoming a Senator. Modern Deans move into their positions so late in their careers that a move to the Senate is highly unlikely. When Ed Markey broke Gillett's record for time in the House before moving to the Senate in 2013 he was still decades junior to the sitting Dean.
The Deanship can change hands unexpectedly. In the 1952 election, Adolph J. Sabath became the first Representative elected to a 24th term, breaking the record of 23 terms first set by former Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon, whose service had been discontinuous, whereas Sabath's was not. North Carolina's Robert L. Doughton had not contested that election as he was retiring at the age of 89 years and two months, a House age record broken in 1998 by Sidney R. Yates, and again by Ralph Hall in 2012. Claude Pepper, who died early in his final term in 1989, held the record for oldest winner of a House election until Hall broke it in 2012. However, Sabath died before the new term began and Doughton was Dean for the old term's final months before Speaker Sam Rayburn became Dean in the new Congress.
In 1994, Texas Democrat Jack Brooks was defeated by Steve Stockman in the year he was expected to succeed Jamie Whitten as Dean.

List of Deans of the House

Years as Dean are followed by name, party, state, and start of service in Congress.
All the members of the First Congress had equal seniority, but Muhlenberg, as the Speaker, was the first member to be sworn in. Muhlenberg, Hartley and Thatcher were among the 13 members who attended the initial meeting of the House on March 4, 1789.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some state delegations to the House were often not elected until after the term had begun. To avoid confusion, this fact is ignored in the list below.
Became DeanLeft HouseDeanPartyStateSeniority dateSpeaker
March 1789March 1797Frederick MuhlenbergFederalistPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1789Frederick Muhlenberg – 1789
Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. – 1791
Frederick Muhlenberg – 1793
Jonathan Dayton – 1795
March 1797December 1800Thomas HartleyFederalistPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1789Jonathan Dayton – 1797
Theodore Sedgwick – 1799
March 1797March 1801George ThatcherFederalistMassachusettsMarch 4, 1789Jonathan Dayton – 1797
Theodore Sedgwick – 1799
March 1801March 1803William B. GroveFederalistNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1791Nathaniel Macon – 1801, 1803, 1805
Joseph Bradley Varnum – 1807, 1809
Henry Clay – 1811, 1813
Langdon Cheves – 1814
March 1801March 1807Andrew GreggDemocratic-RepublicanPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1791Nathaniel Macon – 1801, 1803, 1805
Joseph Bradley Varnum – 1807, 1809
Henry Clay – 1811, 1813
Langdon Cheves – 1814
March 1801December 1815Nathaniel MaconDemocratic-RepublicanNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1791Nathaniel Macon – 1801, 1803, 1805
Joseph Bradley Varnum – 1807, 1809
Henry Clay – 1811, 1813
Langdon Cheves – 1814
December 1815April 1816Richard StanfordDemocratic-RepublicanNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1797Henry Clay – 1815
April 1816March 1817John DavenportFederalistConnecticutMarch 4, 1799
March 1817March 1830Thomas Newton, Jr.Democratic-Republican;
Adams		VirginiaMarch 4, 1801Henry Clay – 1817, 1819
John W. Taylor – 1820
Philip Pendleton Barbour – 1821
Henry Clay – 1823
John W. Taylor – 1825
Andrew Stevenson – 1827, 1829
March 1830March 1833William McCoyJacksonianVirginiaMarch 4, 1811Andrew Stevenson – 1831
March 1833February 1842Lewis WilliamsNational Republican;
Whig; Democratic		North CarolinaMarch 4, 1815Andrew Stevenson – 1833
John Bell – 1834
James K. Polk – 1835, 1837
Robert M. T. Hunter – 1839
John White – 1841
February 1842March 1843Horace EverettWhigVermontMarch 4, 1829John Winston Jones – 1843
February 1842April 1844Dixon H. LewisDemocraticAlabamaMarch 4, 1829John Winston Jones – 1843
April 1844February 1848John Quincy AdamsWhigMassachusettsMarch 4, 1831John Wesley Davis – 1845
Robert Charles Winthrop – 1847
April 1844March 1849James I. McKayDemocraticNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1831John Wesley Davis – 1845
Robert Charles Winthrop – 1847
March 1849March 1855Linn BoydDemocraticKentuckyMarch 4, 1839Howell Cobb – 1849
Linn Boyd – 1851, 1853
March 1855March 1859Joshua Reed GiddingsRepublicanOhioMay 5, 1842Nathaniel Prentice Banks – 1856
James Lawrence Orr – 1857
March 1859March 1863John S. PhelpsDemocraticMissouriMarch 4, 1845William Pennington – 1860
Galusha A. Grow – 1861
March 1863March 1869Elihu B. WashburneRepublicanIllinoisMarch 4, 1853Schuyler Colfax – 1863, 1865, 1867
Theodore Medad Pomeroy – 1869
March 1869March 1875Henry L. DawesRepublicanMassachusettsMarch 4, 1857James G. Blaine – 1869, 1871, 1873
Joseph H. Rainey – 1874
James G. Blaine – 1874
March 1875January 1890William D. KelleyRepublicanPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1861Michael C. Kerr – 1875
Samuel J. Randall – 1876, 1877, 1879
J. Warren Keifer – 1881
John Griffin Carlisle – 1883, 1885, 1887
Thomas Brackett Reed – 1889
January 1890April 1890Samuel J. RandallDemocraticPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1863
April 1890March 1891Joseph G. CannonRepublicanIllinoisMarch 4, 1873Charles Frederick Crisp – 1891, 1893
April 1890March 1892Roger Q. MillsDemocraticTexasMarch 4, 1873Charles Frederick Crisp – 1891, 1893
April 1890March 1893James H. BlountDemocraticGeorgiaMarch 4, 1873Charles Frederick Crisp – 1891, 1893
April 1890March 1895Richard P. BlandDemocraticMissouriMarch 4, 1873Charles Frederick Crisp – 1891, 1893
March 1895March 1897David B. CulbersonDemocraticTexasMarch 4, 1875Thomas Brackett Reed – 1895
March 1897September 1899Thomas Brackett ReedRepublicanMaineMarch 4, 1877Thomas Brackett Reed – 1897
September 1899March 1912Henry H. BinghamRepublicanPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1879David B. Henderson – 1899, 1901
Joseph Gurney Cannon – 1903, 1905, 1907, 1909
Champ Clark – 1911
March 1912March 1913John DalzellRepublicanPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1887
March 1913December 1914Sereno E. PayneRepublicanNew YorkMarch 4, 1889Champ Clark – 1913
December 1914April 1918William A. JonesDemocraticVirginiaMarch 4, 1891Champ Clark – 1915, 1917
April 1918March 1919Henry Allen CooperRepublicanWisconsinMarch 4, 1893Frederick H. Gillett – 1919, 1921, 1923
April 1918March 1925Frederick H. GillettRepublicanMassachusettsMarch 4, 1893Frederick H. Gillett – 1919, 1921, 1923
March 1925May 1928Thomas S. ButlerRepublicanPennsylvaniaMarch 4, 1897Nicholas Longworth – 1925, 1927
May 1928March 1933Gilbert N. HaugenRepublicanIowaMarch 4, 1899Nicholas Longworth – 1929
John Nance Garner – 1931
March 1933April 1934Edward W. PouDemocraticNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1901Henry T. Rainey – 1933
April 1934November 1952Adolph J. SabathDemocraticIllinoisMarch 4, 1907Joseph W. Byrns – 1935
William B. Bankhead – 1936, 1937, 1939
Sam Rayburn – 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945
Joseph W. Martin, Jr. – 1947
Sam Rayburn – 1949, 1951
November 1952January 1953Robert L. DoughtonDemocraticNorth CarolinaMarch 4, 1911
January 1953November 1961Sam RayburnDemocraticTexasMarch 4, 1913Joseph W. Martin, Jr. – 1953
Sam Rayburn – 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961
November 1961January 1965Carl VinsonDemocraticGeorgiaNovember 3, 1914John W. McCormack – 1962, 1963
January 1965January 1973Emanuel CellerDemocraticNew YorkMarch 4, 1923John W. McCormack – 1965, 1967, 1969
Carl Albert – 1971
January 1973March 1976Wright PatmanDemocraticTexasMarch 4, 1929Carl Albert – 1973, 1975
March 1976January 1979George H. MahonDemocraticTexasJanuary 3, 1935Tip O'Neill – 1977
January 1979January 1995Jamie WhittenDemocraticMississippiNovember 4, 1941Tip O'Neill – 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985
Jim Wright – 1987, 1989
Tom Foley – 1989, 1991, 1993
January 1995January 2015John DingellDemocraticMichiganDecember 13, 1955Newt Gingrich – 1995, 1997
Dennis Hastert – 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005
Nancy Pelosi – 2007, 2009
John Boehner – 2011, 2013
January 2015December 2017John ConyersDemocraticMichiganJanuary 3, 1965John Boehner – 2015
Paul Ryan – 2015, 2017
December 2017incumbentDon YoungRepublicanAlaskaMarch 6, 1973Paul Ryan – 2017
Nancy Pelosi – 2019