24 Members of Congress Who Didn't Last 100 Days

George Walton was a Founding Father and signer of the Declaration of Independence and had a long and illustrious career as governor of Georgia, House representative, and Chief Justice of Georgia. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of the Georgia Sen. James Jackson, and left when a successor, Josiah Tattnall, was elected 97 days later.

William Francis Strudwick was a North Carolina farmer who served briefly in the state Senate before being elected to the U.S. Congress in 1796 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Rep. Absalom Tatom. He only served 95 days, but later he served two years in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Jocelyn Burdick was the wife of U.S. Sen. Quentin Burdick of North Dakota. When Quentin died at age 84 in office, Jocelyn was appointed by Gov. George Sinner to fill his unexpired term until a special election could be held. During her 93 days as senator, Burdick was the first female from the state to hold the office.

Alexander Boarman served in the Confederate Army and spent a year as mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1872, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the death of U.S. Rep.-elect James McCleery. He lost his reelection and left office 90 days later.

A New Orleans teacher, planter, and politician, Benjamin Flanders was elected to the House, representing Louisiana’s 1st District, in an 1862 special election to assume a vacant seat. He chose not to seek reelection but went on to serve as governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans, the last Republican mayor of the city.

A Democrat from Brooklyn, John Hunter was elected as a U.S. representative from the state of New York to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Humphrey. He was censured while in office for insulting another member during a debate and didn’t seek reelection.

Nathaniel D. Wallace was elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Michael Hahn in 1886. He didn’t seek reelection.

George Jones had an illustrious career as Georgia representative and senator, mayor of Savannah, and a judge before being appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Abraham Baldwin. He served for 73 days, until a successor was sworn in.

Attorney Dean Barkley chaired Jesse Ventura’s successful bid for governor of Minnesota in 1998, and Ventura returned the favor by appointing him to fill the Senate seat occupied by Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash just weeks before the 2002 election. He only served until Norm Coleman was elected and sworn in to fill the seat.

John Moses served as governor of North Dakota from 1939 to 1945 and was elected into the U.S. Senate that year. He passed away after serving only 59 days in office. Aside from those assigned to fill vacancies and those not seated until after their official terms had started, he is the shortest-serving U.S. senator ever.

Hampton P. Fulmer, was a U.S. representative from South Carolina from 1923 to 1944, when he died in office. His wife, Willa Fulmer, was elected to fill the vacancy caused by his death later that year, and she didn’t seek reelection.

Thomas M. Storke was best known as a successful newspaper owner in Santa Barbara, California, when he was appointed to serve as an interim U.S. senator between the resignation of William Gibbs McAdoo in November 1938 and the swearing-in of his elected successor Sheridan Downey in January 1939.

Democrat David Curson won a special election to replace Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, who resigned in the summer of 2012. He intended to return to private life immediately after his six-week term ended, and that’s precisely what he did.

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs won a special election to finish the term of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who decided to retire rather than face a tough reelection campaign. Sekula-Gibbs’s term only lasted 51 days, until Nick Lampson was sworn in to represent the Texas district.

Chairman of the South Carolina Planning Board, Wilton E. Hall was appointed as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ellison D. Smith. He served for just 44 days, and wasn’t a candidate for reelection.

James Mann was a Maine state senator who stayed in Louisiana after the Civil War, and there he was elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives from that state in 1868. He died after only 39 days in office. A special election to succeed him was won by John Willis Menard, the first African American ever elected to Congress, but the House of Representatives refused to seat him.

Brenda Jones was a member of the Detroit City Council who won a special election to replace long-serving Rep. John Conyers, who resigned in 2017 due to sexual harassment allegations. After serving for just 35 days, Jones was defeated in the Democratic primary for the general election by Rashida Tlaib.

A member of the Atlanta City Council, Kwanza Hall won the special election to replace rep Lewis after his 2020 passing. He wasn’t selected to be a candidate in the general election, so Hall only served 31 days in office.

A U.S. district judge, Alva Lumpkin was appointed to the Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Sen. James F. Byrnes in 1941. He served for just 10 days before dying of a gastric hemorrhage.

A Georgia Democrat and former Confederate doctor, Homer V.M. Miller was elected to the Senate in 1868, when the state’s congressional representation was restored postwar. He was seated on Feb. 24, 1871, and his term ended just a week later.

A New Hampshire Republican representative, Louis C. Wyman ran for the 1974 Senate seat that was opened up when Norris Cotton retired. After the election, his opponent, Democrat John A. Durkin, demanded a recount, and the resulting back-and-forth lasted more than seven months. During this time, the governor appointed Wyman to the seat for the balance of the term – a whopping three days – to give him a leg up in seniority. It was later decided to just hold another election, which Durkin won.

A feminist and a suffragist in Georgia during the Progressive era, 87-year-old Rebecca Latimer Felton was appointed senator as a largely symbolic gesture to complete the remaining one-day of a term in November 1922. This made her the first woman to serve in the Senate as well as, then, the oldest freshman senator.

Turner M. Marquette was a Nebraska Republican who won a seat in the House of Representatives for the Territory of Nebraska. However, Nebraska was admitted as a state only one day after his swearing-in, so his election was voided and he was only able to serve for less than two full days.

Effingham Lawrence is best-known for serving the shortest term in congressional history: just one day. His opponent in the 1872 election, Jacob Hale Sypher, was initially declared the winner, but Lawrence appealed the results and eventually won. By a quirk of the congressional calendar, Lawrence was only able to serve for one day before his term ended.