The sweet story behind the U.S. Senate ‘candy desk’
U.S. Senators, as one might surmise, rarely pass up an opportunity to tout their home states – what businesses are based there, what products are made there – and that trait is on display in an unusual place. It’s at a spot in the back of the Senate chamber, known as the “candy desk.”
The history of the U.S. Senate’s candy desk goes back to 1965. Donald Ritchie, the head of the Senate Historical Office, says Sen. George Murphy (R-CA), “an old song-and-dance man,” had a sweet tooth.
“Sen. Murphy filled his desk drawer with candies, which he dipped into,” Ritchie says. “And then he invited his colleagues to stop whenever they wanted to.”
Murphy lost his seat in 1970, but the tradition continued. The desk, which is right by the main door to the Senate chamber, currently belongs to Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL). “You have a chance to sell your state’s products there,” he says. “Or talk about stuff.”
Today, it is chock full of candies manufactured in the Land of Lincoln. For Kirk, a fan of Chicago’s Ferrara Candy Company, it’s personal.
“They offered me all of the desks on the Republican side, and I wanted to make sure that those bastards in Hershey, Penn., couldn’t get the candy desk,” he says, laughing.
Kirk is referring, of course, to the Hershey Candy Company, which had a monopoly on senators’ sweets for years. The desk used to belong to Rick Santorum, and the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania filled it with Kit Kats and Kisses.
I asked all 100 senators to name their favorite candies, and they all seem partial to what is manufactured back home. New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen likes dark chocolate salted caramels from Granite State Candy, for instance. Georgia’s Jonny Isakson likes Snickers, which include, he points out, Georgia peanuts.
The desk has suited some senators better than others. George Voinovich represented Ohio, a state not known for its confections. So, his tenure at the candy desk didn’t last long. “I think it was one year,” he recalls. “That was enough.”
George LeMieux used to sit at the desk. “I used to joke that it was an unfunded mandate that I had to provide candy for the rest of my senators,” he says. “But I was happy to do so.”
Kirk, the man currently charged with filling the candy desk’s drawers, likes Jelly Belly-brand jelly beans, and there are plenty of those in the candy desk, but he also stocks it with baby aspirin. He had a stroke in 2012, and a small daily dose of the pain killer, he tells his colleagues and constituents, can prevent strokes and heart attacks.
While this means there is less room for Illinois candy, Kirk is able to draw attention to another constituent: the company that makes the aspirin is based outside of Chicago.
 
The preferred candies of your elected officials
They may not be in charge of the candy desk, but we wanted to know anyway: What are your senator’s favorite sweets? Below, a yearbook of the candies that melt hearts and minds:
Tammy Baldwin
D-Wisconsin
Ghiradelli Intense Dark 72% Cacao Twilight Delight Singles
Richard Blumenthal
D-Connecticut
Wint-O-Green Life Savers
Roy Blunt
R-Missouri
No comment
John Boozman
R-Arkansas
Jelly Belly jelly beans
Sherrod Brown
D-Ohio
Milky Way
Ben Cardin
D-Maryland
Goetze’s Original Vanilla Caramel Creams
Tom Carper
D-Delaware
York Peppermint Pattie
Bob Casey
D-Pennsylvania
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars
Tom Coburn
R-Oklahoma
Hot Tamales
Thad Cochran
R-Mississippi
Chocolate covered peanuts
Susan Collins
R-Maine
Maine maple sugar candy
Mike Crapo
R-Idaho
Snickers
Dick Durbin
D-Illinois
Dark Chocolate Snickers
Mike Enzi
R-Wyoming
Big Hunk
Dianne Feinstein
D-California
See’s Candies Dark Chocolate
Jeff Flake
R-Arizona
3 Musketeers
Kirsten Gillibrand
D-New York
No candy
Tom Harkin
D-Iowa
Brach’s Hard Candy
Orrin Hatch
R-Utah
Jelly beans
Martin Heinrich
D-New Mexico
Dark chocolate with sea salt
Dean Heller
R-Nevada
Cinnamon bears
Mazie Hirono
D-Hawaii
Snickers
John Hoeven
R-North Dakota
Life Savers Gummies
Johnny Isakson
R-Georgia
Snickers
Ron Johnson
R-Wisconsin
Milky Way
Tim Johnson
D-South Dakota
Chocolate
Tim Kaine
D-Virginia
No candy, Dr. Pepper
Angus King
I-Maine
Peppermint
Mark Kirk
R-Illinois
Jelly Belly jelly beans
Mary Landrieu
D-Louisiana
Snickers
Patrick Leahy
D-Vermont
Anything chocolate
Mike Lee
R-Utah
Jelly beans
Joe Manchin
D-West Virginia
Peanuts
Ed Markey
D-Massachusetts
Milky Way Dark
Mitch McConnell
R-Kentucky
No candy
Robert Menendez
D-New Jersey
Dark Chocolate M&M’s
Barbara Mikulski
D-Maryland
No candy
Jerry Moran
R-Kansas
Peanut M&M’s
Chris Murphy
D-Connecticut
Twix
Patty Murray
D-Washington
Dark chocolate peanut butter cups
Bill Nelson
D-Florida
None
Rand Paul
R-Kentucky
Snickers
Jack Reed
D-Rhode Island
Baby Ruth
Harry Reid
D-Nevada
Nuts
James Risch
R-Idaho
Butterfinger
Jay Rockefeller
D-West Virginia
Baby Ruth
Marco Rubio
R-Florida
No comment
Bernie Sanders
I-Vermont
No comment
Brian Schatz
D-Hawaii
Cinnamon hard candy
Chuck Schumer
D-New York
Snickers
Jeanne Shaheen
D-New Hampshire
Red licorice and chocolate salted caramels from Granite State Candy
Jon Tester
R-Montana
Butterfinger
John Thune
R-South Dakota
Twin Bing
Pat Toomey
R-Pennsylvania
3 Musketeers
Mark Udall
D-Colorado
Toffee from Enstrom Candies (Grand Junction, CO)
Tom Udall
D-New Meixco
Dark chocolate spiced with New Mexico red chile
John Walsh
D-Montana
Baby Ruth and Milky Way Midnight
Elizabeth Warren
D-Massachusetts
Mounds
Sheldon Whitehouse
D-Rhode Island
Milky Way Dark
Ron Wyden
D-Oregon
Milk chocolate
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