No golden ticket is required to take a seat in the sweet spot in the Senate: the famous “candy desk.” But with Sen. Markwayne Mullin soon vacating it to lead the Department of Homeland Security, questions are swirling over who the chamber’s new candy maestro will be.
The tradition began in the 1960s, when California Republican Sen. George Murphy started keeping hard candy on hand. With his desk near the chamber’s most frequently used door, Murphy began sharing the lozenges with his colleagues, and the rest is history.
Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch, who frequently partakes in candy from the desk, said Mullin provided a “high-quality product.”
“So I’m hoping that we find somebody who’s willing to step up and accept this high responsibility,” he said.
While the desk is located on the Republican side of the chamber, Welch said Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith has been running an unofficial candy desk for the Democrats, stocked with what he called “a nice variety of temptations.”
It’s not the first time the candy desk will change hands in the middle of a congressional term. After Craig L. Thomas of Wyoming died in 2007, it went to George Voinovich of Ohio. But the precedent for who controls the desk is unclear — when Mel Martinez of Florida resigned mid-term, his successor, George S. LeMieux, took over the candy desk.
According to the Senate Historical Office, the desk is usually assigned to a junior senator. The tenure varies: former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., held it for a decade, while others, like Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., held it for two years.
With Mullin’s departure, Young will soon be the only candy desk alum in the Senate. But he’s not currently interested in reclaiming ownership of the desk, saying, “We left on a high note, I like to think, and we proved our street cred. And now it’s time to invite others to see if they can compete. It’s the American way.”
West Virginia Republican Jim Justice, a freshman senator, said he was unfamiliar with the candy desk after more than a year in the chamber, but he liked the idea of bringing candy from the Mountain State to Congress and would consider becoming the desk’s next occupant.
“We may very well do that, because I could bring a lot of really nice, nice candy from the Greenbrier, and people would probably really enjoy that,” he said, referring to the West Virginia resort’s famed confectioner.
Young, however, floated another potential successor to the stand of sweets — Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“Pennsylvania did fairly well. Not quite Indiana-well, but they did well,” Young joked about Pennsylvania Sen. Patrick J. Toomey’s tenure, his candy desk predecessor. “We can invite them back into the fold. But maybe Senator Sullivan can expose us to some Alaska candy.”
According to the Senate Historical Office, the candy desk is located on the Republican side of the chamber, in the last row, on the aisle and adjacent to the chamber’s busiest entrance. While the location stays the same, the occupants of the desk have changed, as senators can opt to switch which desk is theirs every two years.
The contents have changed over the years, varying from hard candies to chocolates, often representative of the state of its occupant. Santorum, for example, stocked it during his tenure with famed products from Pennsylvania, like Hershey’s.
During Young’s tenure at the desk, he kept it filled with a variety of sweets from the Hoosier state, including Gummies from Albanese Confectionery Group in Merrillville and Sour Punch Straws from The Sweet Tooth in Munster, to name a few.
Over the years, various candymakers represented by the National Confectioners Association have helped provide a free assortment of products to stock the desk, usually from the occupant’s home state, according to information provided by the Senate Historical Office. The National Confectioners Association spends hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on lobbying, according to disclosures.
Although the successor to Mullin’s sugary reign hasn’t been chosen yet, lawmakers are hoping whoever takes on the responsibility next will be up for the job.
“Candidly, I’m just sort of concerned about future custody of the desk,” Young joked, quipping it took Mullin “about a week to give up on finding any delicious Oklahoma candies and he went national.”
