Reform of the United States Senate, the upper house of the United States Congress, has been a topic of discussion in US politics since the country's creation.
The United States Senate was initially elected indirectly by state legislatures. Reformers from Andrew Johnson to the Populist Party proposed direct election by voters, which was adopted in the Seventeenth Amendment.
The Senate's apportionment system provides two Senators per state, which provides small-population states substantially more power per voter than large-population states. Most Founding Fathers strongly opposed this system, but a narrow majority accepted it as a compromise to unify the young postwar country. Reformers propose several remedies, from shifting Senate apportionment to better reflect the US population, to reducing the powers of the Senate, to outright Senate abolition.
History The history of unicameralism in the United States began with the American Revolution: The provisional government of the early United States was unicameral from 1775–1788 and three revolutionary states had unicameral legislatures: Georgia (1777–1789), Pennsylvania (1776–1790), and Vermont (1776–1836).
three US states and territories have a unicameral legislature: The Nebraska Legislature (since 1937), the Legislature of Guam (since 1950), and the Legislature of the Virgin Islands (since 1954). Other states have considered or passed reforms to adopt unicameral legislatures, but none have taken effect.
1776–1781: American Revolutionary era During the American Revolution, the United States' provisional Congress was unicameral, with no upper and lower chamber. Both the First Continental Congress (1774) and Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) were unicameral, giving each state one vote.
After the Declaration of Independence and during the Revolutionary War, 11 of 13 states fully rewrote their constitutions. Of those, nine chose bicameral legislatures, while two chose unicameral legislatures (Pennsylvania and Georgia). In addition, the Vermont Republic adopted a unicameral legislature. In general, states with conventions dominated by "moderate" patriots modelled their legislature on the bicameral Parliament of the United Kingdom (with its House of Commons and House of Lords), while those dominated by "radical" pro-democracy patriots adopted unicameral legislatures. "Radical" patriots sought to prevent the creation of a new American aristocracy, leading them to oppose an upper house and to support more expansive voting rights, to prevent a new elite from consolidating political power.
The 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution created a highly democratic government structure that featured a unicameral legislature, a collective executive, a weak governor with no gubernatorial veto, appointment of judges by the legislature (rather than Governor), and voting rights for all adult men who paid taxes, including both White and Black men, in contrast to the property requirements of other states. Pennsylvania's Constitution also banned imprisonment as a punishment for debt and created public schools in each county.Ford, Paul Leicester. “The Adoption of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.” Political Science Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 3, 1895, pp. 426–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2139954. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026. The 1776 Constitution was based substantially on Thomas Paine's Common Sense. In 1790, moderates gained power in the state legislature, called a new constitutional convention, and rewrote the constitution. The 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution created a single executive, gave the executive veto power, and created a new upper house. Benjamin Franklin, president of Pennsylvania's 1776 constitutional convention, strongly opposed the upper house. In 1789, Franklin argued that an upper house would give the wealthy a distinct institutional base and begin an aristocracy. Thomas Paine strongly opposed the new Constitution, calling it "a departure from the principles" of representative government and a mere "copy in miniature of the government of England".
In Vermont, the drafters of the 1777 Vermont Constitution modelled it on Pennsylvania, but went further, by banning all adult slavery and by permitting all men over the age of 21 to vote, regardless of wealth. Vermont's unicameral legislature was abolished by an 1836 constitutional amendment, which created an upper chamber.
In Georgia, the drafters of the 1777 Georgia Constitution established a unicameral assembly, voting rights for all White adult men who paid taxes, and mandatory voting. Georgia's unicameral legislature was abolished by the 1789 Georgia Constitution, which created an upper and lower chamber.
1787: Constitutional Convention After the end of the American Revolutionary War, the postwar United States government remained unicameral under the Articles of Confederation, in which the Congress of the Confederation (1781–1788) gave each state one vote.
During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the vast majority of attendees supported bicameralism with a "people's house" lower chamber that was apportioned by population. However, discussion about how to apportion the upper chamber was deeply contentious, and the drafters of the Constitution debated more about how to award representation in the Senate than about any other part of the Constitution.
The Virginia Plan contemplated representation in both chambers based on population or financial contribution. James Madison and James Wilson opposed equal voting by states in the Senate, arguing that political authority came from the people and that allowing a minority of the population to control the majority violated republican principles. Wilson supported the direct popular election of senators and strongly rejected any deviation from proportional representation, arguing: "For whom do we form a constitution, for men, or for imaginary beings called States, a mere metaphysical distinction? Will a regard to State rights justify the sacrifice of the rights of men?" Madison suggested that equal representation by state, instead of population-proportional representation, meant the "proper foundation of Government was destroyed" and enshrined "improper principles" in law. Although Madison later defended the compromise in Federalist No. 62, he described equal state suffrage at the convention as an expedient concession rather than a principle of democratic representation. Law professor Burt Neuborne says Madison, writing in Federalist No. 62, "called the Senate a necessary compromise with principle and warned the nation not to seek any theoretical justification for it". Opposition to the proposed Senate also came from democratic elements among the Anti-Federalists. Their objections were not limited to equal state representation: critics argued that the chamber's small size, six-year terms, indirect election and extensive powers could make it an aristocratic institution remote from ordinary voters.
In the end, some small states — unwilling to give up their equal power with larger states under the Articles of Confederation — threatened to secede. The small states won the day by a 5–4 vote in favor of the "Connecticut Compromise", which provided that each state — regardless of population — would be represented by two senators.
These "yes" votes represented a minority of the population. Out of twelve eligible states, the delegations from five voted yes (Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina), four voted no (Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia), three did not vote (Massachusetts, who were divided; New York, who were divided and had just 1 of 3 delegates; and New Hampshire, who had not arrived), and one rejected the entire Convention (Rhode Island). The 1790 United States census suggests that the delegations voting "yes" represented states with 33% of free people, "no" 37%, and non-votes 30%. The fact that the Senate was created by a minority of the population was obvious to the Founders: James Wilson argued: "Our Constituents, had they voted as their representatives did, would have stood as 2/3 against the equality, and 1/3 only in favor of it." Similarly, James Madison noted: "We are driven to an unhappy dilemma. Two thirds of the inhabitants of the union are to please the remaining one third by sacrificing their essential rights.".
1780s-1880s: Doldrums of reform Originally, senators were selected by the state legislatures, not by popular elections. This was unpopular but slow to change. Calls for a constitutional amendment regarding Senate elections started in the early 19th century, with Henry R. Storrs in 1826 proposing an amendment to provide for popular election. Similar amendments were introduced in 1829 and 1855, with the "most prominent" proponent being Andrew Johnson, who raised the issue in 1868 and considered the idea's merits "so palpable" that no additional explanation was necessary.
In the 1860s, there was a major congressional dispute over the issue, with the House and Senate voting to veto the appointment of John P. Stockton to the Senate due to his approval by a plurality of the New Jersey Legislature rather than a majority. In reaction, the Congress passed a bill in July 1866 that required state legislatures to elect senators by an absolute majority.
In April 1876, US House member Sobieski Ross introduced petitions for two constitutional amendments, one supporting "abolition of the presidency" and the other "abolition of the United States Senate." Neither advanced from committee.
1890s-1913: Movement for direct election of the Senate By the 1890s, support for the introduction of direct election for the Senate had substantially increased. The Populist Party incorporated the direct election of senators into its Omaha Platform, adopted in 1892. In 1908, Oregon passed the first law basing the selection of U.S. senators on a popular vote. Oregon was soon followed by Nebraska."Direct Election of Senators" , United States Senate webpage, Origins and Development—Institutional. Proponents for popular election noted that ten states already had non-binding primaries for Senate candidates, in which the candidates would be voted on by the public, effectively serving as advisory referendums instructing state legislatures how to vote. Reformers campaigned for more states to introduce a similar method. By 1912, the legislatures of 29 states had enacted popular election of senators via referendums.
In April 1911, US House member Victor Berger introduced a constitutional amendment that would abolish the Senate, eliminate the Presidential veto, and restrict judicial review. Berger's proposal was motivated in part by a series of corruption scandals in state legislatures, which still elected most Senators. The amendment did not advance from committee. Instead, in 1912, Congress passed the Seventeenth Amendment, which mandated popular election of Senators. In 1913, the states ratified the Seventeenth Amendment, thus standardizing direct election to the Senate nationwide. which required popular election while leaving the equal representation of states unchanged.
1960s: Warren Court decisions