Helping put patriots in Congress
What's the difference between a Senator and a Representative? And who's representing me?
The United States Congress is made up of two "houses": the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Senators
Each state has two senators, so there are currently 100 senators total.
A senator is elected to a six-year term, but they are not elected all at once. Every two years, only a third of the senators will be up for re-election.
Representatives
Each state has a number of representatives, proportionate to its population; the larger the state, the more representatives it has--but every state has at least one.
Members of the House of Representatives are often referred to simply as "congressmen," which can be confusing, since senators and representatives are both congressmen, in the broader sense of the word.
States with more than one representative are divided into "congressional districts," with one representative per district.
A representative is only elected to a two-year term, so they will all be up for re-election every two years.
The House of Representatives currently has 435 members.
Click here for the names and contact information for your senators and representative.
Senators
Each state has two senators, so there are currently 100 senators total.
A senator is elected to a six-year term, but they are not elected all at once. Every two years, only a third of the senators will be up for re-election.
Representatives
Each state has a number of representatives, proportionate to its population; the larger the state, the more representatives it has--but every state has at least one.
Members of the House of Representatives are often referred to simply as "congressmen," which can be confusing, since senators and representatives are both congressmen, in the broader sense of the word.
States with more than one representative are divided into "congressional districts," with one representative per district.
A representative is only elected to a two-year term, so they will all be up for re-election every two years.
The House of Representatives currently has 435 members.
Click here for the names and contact information for your senators and representative.
Some Good News
If you do the math (and in case you don't want to, we've done it for you), you will see that out of a total of 535 members of Congress, 468 are up for re-election every two years.
This means that in the 2012 election, we could replace 87% of the entire Congress.
Please think about it, and please get the word out.
If you do the math (and in case you don't want to, we've done it for you), you will see that out of a total of 535 members of Congress, 468 are up for re-election every two years.
This means that in the 2012 election, we could replace 87% of the entire Congress.
Please think about it, and please get the word out.
