A state senator is a member of a state's Senate, the upper house in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a legislator in Nebraska's one house State Legislature.
There are typically fewer state senators than there are members of a state's lower house. In the past, this meant that senators represented various geographic regions within a state, regardless of the population, as a way of balancing the power of the lower house, which was apportioned according to population. This changed in 1963 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that state legislatures must apportion seats in both houses according to population. A state senator's job is to represent the people at a higher level than a State Representative.
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or senator:
“Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“He looked at Senator Hatch and said, “I’m going to make her cry. I’m going to sing ‘Dixie’ until she cries.” And I looked at him and said, “Senator Helms, your singing would make me cry if you sang ‘Rock of Ages’.””
—Carol Moseley-Braun (b. 1947)