With Election Day just around the corner, Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a fierce battle for control of the Senate. The race is expected to go down to the wire, but unfortunately for Democrats, even if they take the Senate, there’s one vital part of the chamber they won’t control: the desk in the back row that is known as the “candy desk.”
The tradition of the candy desk began in 1968, when actor-turned-senator George Murphy of California took the seat at the back row of the Senate chamber. Senate lore holds that Murphy had a sweet tooth and kept candy in his desk.
According to Daniel Holt of the U.S. Senate Historical Office, soon enough, Murphy’s habit attracted the attention of other senators, and Murphy’s desk became the go-to spot to grab a treat. The location was ideal: numbered as the 80th desk in the chamber, Murphy’s desk was in front of the entrance most heavily used by his fellow senators.
Murphy left the Senate in 1971, but the tradition of the candy desk lived on. Holt says it quickly became a vehicle for senators to showcase the confections of candy makers in their home states.
The desk has been under Republican control continuously since its creation, and that’s not likely to change. Because of how seating is organized in the Senate chamber, with Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right, Democrats would need to win the largest majority since Reconstruction—80 seats—to take over the candy desk. (Republicans need only hold 20 seats to maintain control of it.)
Throughout its history, Pennsylvania’s senators have been major players at the candy desk, showing off chocolates and other sweets from the land of Hershey. Rick Santorum holds the record for longest tenure presiding over the desk—he held it for a decade until he was ousted from his seat in 2006.
A stable source of candy was hard to come by under Santorum’s successor, Craig Thomas of Wyoming. Unlike Pennsylvania, Wyoming wasn’t home to big name candymakers. “There was some speculation that the tradition may not continue on,” Holt said.
Thomas eventually found some small Wyoming confectioners to showcase, but he only kept the seat for a year. The desk changed hands three times until Mark Kirk of Illinois took over in 2011. The state of Wrigley’s gum, Tootsie Rolls, and Jelly Belly held the desk for several years and Kirk’s office office touted employment figures from the state’s candy giants. Kirk kept the crucial seat away from Pennsylvanians.
Floorplan of the Senate chamber, with candy desk highlighted in yellow. (Wikimedia Commons)
“They offered me all of the desks on the Republican side, and I wanted to make sure that those bastards in Hershey, Pennsylvania couldn’t get the candy desk,” he joked to Marketplace in 2014.
In 2015, however, Pennsylvania wrested back control. At the start of the 114th Congress, Senator Pat Toomey asked Senate leadership for the seat. According to Toomey’s office, the desk currently offers Reese’s Dark Chocolate, Hershey’s with almonds, milk chocolate kisses, peanut butter cups from Palmer’s, and Rolos.
“We are America’s leading confectioner,” Toomey deadpans in a video posted last year announcing his conquest of the desk.
The candy lobby gets in on the fun, too. The National Confectioners Association, which counts nearly 200 domestic candy manufacturers as members, has represented most of the candy companies that have stocked the desk over the years.
Logistically, it’s all up to the presiding senator’s office to keep the desk full. That’s posed a challenge for some senators whose states don’t have giant candy manufacturers. Under Senate ethics rules, senators are barred from receiving more than $100 in gifts per year from a single source. However, there’s an exception to the rule: the $100 cap does not apply to products produced in a senator’s home state, with the condition that the product—Florida oranges, Washington apples, or candies—be primarily handed out to others or used for promotional purposes.
Fortunately for Toomey, he doesn’t have that problem. His office notes that Pennsylvania has more than 200 smaller confectioners alongside the big names; all the candy in the desk is donated.
Bill Jaffee, Toomey’s deputy press secretary, tells the story of how Gertrude Hawk Chocolates found their way into the candy desk. One day, an employee from the Dunmore, PA-based company was listening to an appearance by Toomey on a local radio show, and Toomey mentioned a Senate colleague had a weakness for their candy. Gertrude jumped at the opportunity to get its product on the Senate floor, and the company shipped Toomey’s office chocolates to stock the desk.
“There’s a chance to visit and have a little sense of bipartisanship,” remarked Toomey’s press secretary, E.R. Anderson, who said senators often stop by and open the desk to help themselves.
Perhaps disappointing for Pennsylvanians, though, is Toomey’s favorite candy. In the video his office posted about the desk, Toomey boasts that Pennsylvania has more candy companies than any other state—then mentions that he loves 3 Musketeers bars, an offering of Mars, which is headquartered in Northern Virginia. (Update: Toomey’s office has reached out to clarify that while Mars is headquartered in Virginia, “3 Musketeers bars are actually made in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.”)
A replica at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston
