Each US state has a Senior senator and a Junior senator, how are these two roles decided?

PearlieMae

The senior senator is always the senator with more time served as senator from that state. For instance, Senators Kennedy and Kerry represent Massachusetts, but Senator Kennedy has been in office since November 7, 1962, and Senator Kerry since January 2, 1985, so Senator Kennedy is the senior senator. Continuous service in the chamber for the senior member for the state, or if for a committee chair, it may be the time served by the Senator on that committee. NOTE: See SR. SENATOR/JR. SENATOR on the following link: http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/glossary.htm [Note & link added -- Zb] Aug 17 08, 11:23 AM

zbeckabee

Senior Senator and Junior Senator are terms commonly used in the media to describe United States Senators. Each state sends two senators to serve in the Senate; the longer (continuously) serving of the two is by convention referred to as the "senior" senator, and the other is referred to as the "junior" senator. If both are elected at the same time (e.g., one in a regular election and the other simultaneously to fill the seat of a senator who resigned), the one who is sworn in first is senior. There is no mandated difference in rights or power, although Senate rules give more power to senators with more seniority. Generally, senior senators will have more power, though being a member of the majority party is more advantageous than being senior. In addition, by custom the senior senator from the president's party controls federal patronage appointments in his/her state. Thus being the junior senator is disadvantageous if the senior one is from the same party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_senator Aug 17 08, 1:09 PM