Dean of the United States House of Representatives

The Dean of the United States House of Representatives is the representative that has been in office the longest. The current Dean is Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky. He has served in the House since January 3, 1981. The Dean is a symbolic job whose only customary duty is to swear in a Speaker of the House when he or she is elected. The Dean comes forward on the House Floor to administer (give) the oath to the Speaker-elect. The new Speaker then administers the oath to the other members. The Dean does not preside over the election of the Speaker, unlike the Father of the House in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and the Dean of the Canadian House of Commons.

Because of other privileges associated with seniority, the Dean is usually given some of the most desirable office space. The Dean is generally either chair or ranking minority member of an influential committee. Unlike the office of President pro tem, the Dean of the House of Representatives is not an official position.

List of Deans of the House
Years as Dean are followed by name, party, state, and start of service in Congress.

All the members of the First Congress had equal seniority (as defined for the purpose of this article). But Muhlenberg as the Speaker was the first member to be sworn in. Muhlenberg, Hartley and Thatcher were among the 13 members who attended the initial meeting of the House on March 4, 1789.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some state delegations to the House were often not elected until after the term had begun. To avoid confusion, this fact is ignored in the list below.

 Term as Dean  Dean  Party  State  Seniority date  Speaker(s) March 1789-March 1797 Frederick Muhlenberg Federalist  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1789(also Speaker 1789–91 and 1793–95)  Frederick Muhlenberg (PA-PA) – 1789Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (PA-CT) – 1791Frederick Muhlenberg (AA-PA) – 1793Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) – 1795 March 1797-December 1800 Thomas Hartley Federalist  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1789  Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) – 1797Theodore Sedgwick (F-MA) – 1799George Thatcher Federalist  Massachusetts December 1800–March 1801 George Thatcher Federalist  Massachusetts  March 4, 1789    March 1801–March 1803 Andrew Gregg Democratic-Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1791  Nathaniel Macon (DR-NC) – 1801William B. Grove Federalist  North CarolinaNathaniel Macon Democratic-Republican  North Carolina March 1803–March 1807 Andrew Gregg Democratic-Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1791  Nathaniel Macon (DR-NC) – 1803, 1805Nathaniel Macon Democratic-Republican  North Carolina March 1807–December 1815 Nathaniel Macon Democratic-Republican  North Carolina  March 4, 1791(also Speaker 1801–1807)  Joseph Bradley Varnum (DR-MA) – 1807, 1809Henry Clay (DR-KY) – 1811, 1813Langdon Cheves (DR-SC) – 1814 December 1815–April 1816 Richard Stanford Democratic-Republican  North Carolina  March 4, 1797  Henry Clay (DR-KY) – 1815 April 1816–March 1817 John Davenport Federalist  Connecticut  March 4, 1799    March 1817–March 1830 Thomas Newton, Jr. Democratic-Republican; Adams  Virginia  March 4, 1801  Henry Clay (DR-KY) – 1817, 1819John W. Taylor (DR-NY) – 1820Philip Pendleton Barbour (DR-VA) – 1821Henry Clay (DR-KY) – 1823John W. Taylor (NR-NY) – 1825Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) – 1827, 1829 March 1830–March 1833 William McCoy Jacksonian  Virginia  March 4, 1811  Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) – 1831 March 1833–February 1842 Lewis Williams National Republican; Whig; Democratic  North Carolina  March 4, 1815  Andrew Stevenson (D-VA) – 1833John Bell (W-TN) – 1834James K. Polk (D-TN) – 1835, 1837Robert M. T. Hunter (W-VA) – 1839John White (W-KY) – 1841 February 1842–March 1843 Horace Everett Whig  Vermont  March 4, 1829   Dixon H. Lewis Democratic  Alabama  March 1843–April 1844 Dixon H. Lewis Democratic  Alabama  March 4, 1829  John Winston Jones (D-VA) – 1843 April 1844–February 1848 John Quincy Adams Whig  Massachusetts  March 4, 1831  John Wesley Davis (D-IN) – 1845Robert Charles Winthrop (W-MA) – 1847James I. McKay Democratic  North Carolina February 1848–March 1849 James I. McKay Democratic  North Carolina    March 1849–March 1855 Linn Boyd Democratic  Kentucky  March 4, 1839 Boyd had previously served 1835–37(also Speaker from 1851)  Howell Cobb (D-GA) – 1849Linn Boyd (D-KY) – 1851, 1853 March 1855–March 1859 Joshua Reed Giddings Republican  Ohio  May 5, 1842  Nathaniel Prentice Banks (A-MA) – 1856James Lawrence Orr (D-SC) – 1857 March 1859–March 1863 John S. Phelps Democratic  Missouri  March 4, 1845  William Pennington (R-NJ) – 1860Galusha A. Grow (R-PA) – 1861 March 1863–March 1869 Elihu B. Washburne Republican  Illinois  March 4, 1853  Schuyler Colfax (R-IN) – 1863, 1865, 1867Theodore Medad Pomeroy (R-NY) – 1869 March 1869–March 1875 Henry L. Dawes Republican  Massachusetts  March 4, 1857  James G. Blaine (R-ME) – 1869, 1871, 1873Joseph H. Rainey (R-SC) – 1874James G. Blaine (R-ME) – 1874 March 1875–January 1890 William D. Kelley Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1861  Michael C. Kerr (D-IN) – 1875Samuel J. Randall (D-PA) – 1876, 1877, 1879J. Warren Keifer (R-OH) – 1881John Griffin Carlisle (D-KY) – 1883, 1885, 1887Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) – 1889 January 1890–April 1890 Samuel J. Randall Democratic  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1863    April 1890–March 1891 Joseph G. Cannon Republican  Illinois  March 4, 1873   Roger Q. Mills Democratic  TexasJames H. Blount Democratic  GeorgiaRichard P. Bland Democratic  Missouri March 1891–March 1892 Roger Q. Mills Democratic  Texas  March 4, 1873  Charles Frederick Crisp (D-GA) – 1891James H. Blount Democratic  GeorgiaRichard P. Bland Democratic  Missouri March 1892–March 1893 James H. Blount Democratic  Georgia  March 4, 1873   Richard P. Bland Democratic  Missouri March 1893–March 1895 Richard P. Bland Democratic  Missouri  March 4, 1873  Charles Frederick Crisp (D-GA) – 1893 March 1895–March 1897 David B. Culberson Democratic  Texas  March 4, 1875  Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) – 1895 March 1897–September 1899 Thomas Brackett Reed Republican  Maine  March 4, 1877 (also Speaker 1889–1891 and 1895–1899)  Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME) – 1897 September 1899–March 1912 Henry H. Bingham Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1879  David B. Henderson (R-IA) – 1899, 1901Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-IL) – 1903, 1905, 1907, 1909Champ Clark (D-MO) – 1911 March 1912–March 1913 John Dalzell Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1887   March 1913–December 1914 Sereno E. Payne Republican  New York  March 4, 1889  Champ Clark (D-MO) – 1913  December 1914–April 1918 William A. Jones Democratic  Virginia  March 4, 1891  Champ Clark (D-MO) – 1915, 1917 April 1918–March 1919 Henry Allen Cooper Republican  Wisconsin  March 4, 1893   Frederick H. Gillett Republican  Massachusetts March 1919–March 1925 Frederick H. Gillett Republican  Massachusetts  March 4, 1893  (also Speaker)  Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA) – 1919, 1921, 1923  March 1925–May 1928 Thomas S. Butler Republican  Pennsylvania  March 4, 1897  Nicholas Longworth (R-OH) – 1925, 1927  May 1928–March 1933 Gilbert N. Haugen Republican  Iowa  March 4, 1899  Nicholas Longworth (R-OH) – 1929John Nance Garner (D-TX) – 1931  March 1933–April 1934 Edward W. Pou Democratic  North Carolina  March 4, 1901  Henry T. Rainey (D-IL) – 1933  April 1934–November 1952 Adolph Joachim Sabath Democratic  Illinois  March 4, 1907  Joseph W. Byrns (D-TN) – 1935William B. Bankhead (D-AL) – 1936, 1937, 1939Sam Rayburn (D-TX) – 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (R-MA) – 1947Sam Rayburn (D-TX) – 1949, 1951  November 1952–January 1953 Robert L. Doughton Democratic  North Carolina  March 4, 1911     January 1953–November 1961 Sam Rayburn Democratic  Texas  March 4, 1913(also Speaker from 1955)  Joseph W. Martin, Jr. (R-MA) – 1953Sam Rayburn (D-TX) – 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961  November 1961–January 1965 Carl Vinson Democratic  Georgia  November 3, 1914  John W. McCormack (D-MA) – 1962, 1963  January 1965–January 1973 Emanuel CellerDemocratic  New York  March 4, 1923  John W. McCormack (D-MA) – 1965, 1967, 1969Carl Albert (D-OK) – 1971  January 1973–March 1976 Wright Patman Democratic  Texas  March 4, 1929  Carl Albert (D-OK) – 1973, 1975  March 1976–January 1979 George H. Mahon Democratic  Texas  January 3, 1935  Tip O'Neill (D-MA) – 1977  January 1979–January 1995 Jamie L. Whitten Democratic  Mississippi  November 4, 1941  Tip O'Neill (D-MA) – 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985Jim Wright (D-TX) – 1987, 1989Tom Foley (D-WA) – 1989, 1991, 1993  January 1995–January 2015 John Dingell Democratic  Michigan  December 13, 1955  Newt Gingrich (R-GA) – 1995, 1997Dennis Hastert (R-IL) – 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – 2007, 2009John Boehner (R-OH) – 2011, 2013  January 2015–December 2017 John Conyers Democratic  Michigan  January 3, 1965  John Boehner (R-OH) – 2015 Paul Ryan (R-WI) – 2015, 2017  December 2017–March 2022 Don Young Republican  Alaska  March 6, 1973  Paul Ryan (R-WI) – 2017Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – 2019, 2021  March 2022–Present Hal Rogers Republican  Kentucky  January 3, 1981  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – 2021
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) – 2023

Mike Johnson (R-LA) – 2023

 Hartley, Stanford, Williams, Kelley, Randall, Bingham, Payne, Jones, Cooper, Butler, Pou, Sabath, Rayburn, Patman and Young died in office.
 Vinson, Whitten, and Dingell entered the House to fill unexpired terms.
 Dingell served as Dean for longer than any other person—exactly 20 years.

 References