Byrd Casts Record 15,000th Senate Vote

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the 80-year-old Democrat from West Virginia who has spent half his life in the Senate, extended his own record by casting his 15,000th vote. Byrd entered the Senate in 1959 and is serving his seventh six-year term. He became the record-holder for most votes in 1990 at 12,134, and today remains 137 votes ahead of the Senate’s other abiding institution, 95-year-old Republican Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Byrd has a 98.7% voting record.