The Senate Candy Desk: Hershey Hauls, Wyoming Fudge, a Democratic Fund

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Eating is banned on the Senate floor, yet since 1965 a stash of candy has sat in a desk on the Republican side. It began with George Murphy, a one term California Republican and former song and dance man from films such as Broadway Melody of 1940 and For Me and My Gal, who kept sweets in his desk. In 1968 he moved to the last row desk on the right side of the aisle beside the east door, next to the elevators to the Capitol subway, where nearly every senator passes, and he started sharing. After Murphy lost in 1970, Paul Fannin of Arizona, Roger Jepsen of Iowa and Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico kept it stocked, and in 1985 Slade Gorton of Washington issued a press release announcing he was its new occupant.

Steve Symms of Idaho began stocking candy donated by confectionery associations, and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who held the desk from 1997 to 2007, drew on Hershey and Just Born under an ethics exception that lets senators accept home state products meant to be shared with visitors. That exception caused a crisis in 2007 for Craig Thomas of Wyoming, a state with no National Confectioners Association members, so his staff rotated small donations from local chocolatiers to keep each under the $100 annual gift limit. Later occupants included George Voinovich of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2023 and Todd Young of Indiana, while Democrats keep a separate stash paid for out of senators' own pockets.

• Hershey shipped roughly 100 pounds of chocolate and candy to the Senate four times a year during Santorum's decade at the desk.
• Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia collected cash from colleagues to buy candy for the Democratic stash, kept in the roll top desk of the Democratic Conference Secretary.
• Todd Young stocked Kraft Caramels, Red Hots, Albanese gummies and Toxic Waste sour candy from an Indianapolis company.
• In 1997 Senator Kit Bond used candy from the desk to show the size of military microchips during a defense authorization debate.
• Jim Talent of Missouri lured senators to his own desk with low carb Russell Stover chocolates during the Atkins diet craze.