11-12-2025 9:07pm

California's First Senator, a Democrat, Became First Republican Presidential Candidate!

Lorraine Mabbett Editor

John C. Fremont served as California's first and only Senator from 1850-1851, despite the Constitution specifying two per state. (Art. I, Sect. 3). By 1856 California had two Senators.

U.S. Senate: States in the Senate | California Senators is a webpage, a part of the US Senate website. It lists all the US Senators who have represented Californians since 1850, when California was admitted to the Union.

It wasn't until 1893 that a Senator originated from Los Angeles, Steven Mallory White, from March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1899.

Currently U.S. Senators serve six years. Currently only one Californian is listed on the US Senate website page, Alex Padilla who was appointed in 2021 & elected in 2022. Missing is Adam Schiff, elected in 2024.

The first Senator sent to Washington DC, representing California, was John C. Fremont from the Democratic party, a member of the 31st Congress. He later ran as the first Republican candidate for President in 1856. He lost to James Buchanan who served only one term. Buchanan did not run for office in 1860, the year Lincoln won the election. U.S. Senate: About the Senate and the Constitution

John Fremont:

Major of a battalion of California Volunteers in 1846
Appointed lieutenant colonel of United States Mounted Rifles in 1846 and ordered to act as Governor of California by Commodore Stockton
General Kearny, United States Army, revoked this order and placed him under arrest for mutiny; tried by court martial, found guilty
Pardoned by President James Polk, but resigned
Settled in California on the Mariposa grant
Commissioner to run the boundary line between United States and Mexico in 1849
Upon the admission of California as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from September 10, 1850, to March 3, 1851
Unsuccessful as the first Republican candidate for president of the United States in 1856

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