There are 100 desks in the Senate Chamber, and one contains the US Senate’s big secret.
The desk in question is on the Republican side and currently belongs to Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Senator Toomey has been mysteriously popular since his arrival in January of 2015. And even though his desk is all the way in the back row of the chamber, Republicans and Democrats alike make their way to visit him often.
What’s the big secret?
The desk is the location of the senate’s secret candy drawer, a tradition held since the 1960s.
Learn about the senator behind the Candy Desk on the #Senate floor https://t.co/KNgR2mPBNM pic.twitter.com/MTPE4zriJ3
— U.S. Senate History (@SenateHistory) August 22, 2016
- The tradition started when California senator and celebrity George Murphy started keeping sweets in his drawer and sharing with those who would come all the way to the back of the chamber to visit him.
- After he left, the tradition carried on. Many famous senators have stocked candy for their contemporaries. Rick Santorum, a former presidential candidate, was once keeper of the drawer, and he was called a “prolific candy distributor.”
- The current Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey has been custodian of the secret candy stash for over a year now, and he’s been doing a good job.
- Democrats are invited to cross party lines to partake of the sweets in the spirit of bipartisanship.
- He has been stocking the drawer with candy from his home state of Pennsylvania: Hershey’s chocolates. He also keeps Hot Tamales and Twizzlers for those who don’t like chocolate.
- In a press release full of puns he talked about living up to the “mounds of responsibility” and that he stands for “the platform of life, liberty and the pursuit of Peeps.”
- His predecessor Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois kept Milky Ways, Jelly beans, and Snickers from Illinois.
John McCain was even once the keeper of the candy drawer! Check out John McCain’s letter to Globalo about his 5 point plan to defeat ISIS.