From lawmaker to Congressman.

• Author: Fitzsimmons, Alex
• Position: TRENDS

Roam the halls of the Rayburn, Cannon Longworth House office buildings in Washington, D.C., and it won't take long to run into a former state legislator. About half of all U.S. representatives have experience back home in their statehouses.

Every two years, hundreds of candidates with state legislative experience run for U.S. Congress. Last November, a little more than 300 current and former state legislators ran for Congress as one of the major party nominees. In some races, both candidates had state legislative experience. While 261 of these candidates won, not all of them will be brand new to Congress. About 70 percent were incumbents running for re-election, while the rest were seeking new titles.

The 2012 election ushered in four new U.S. senators with state legislative experience, bringing the total number to 42-26 Democrats and 16 Republicans. Three of the winners Tammy Baldwin (D) of Wisconsin, Mazie Hirono (D) of Hawaii and Chris Murphy (D) of Connecticut were U.S. representatives before the 2012 election. They join Deb Fischer (R) from Nebraska, who moved directly from the Cornhusker State's Unicameral Legislature to Congress' upper chamber.

On the House side, 33 former state legislators traded the statehouse for the people's house, accounting for about one-third of the freshmen class.

In total, there are 126 Republicans, 92 Democrats and one independent with legislative experience in the 113th Congress. That is consistent with the 50 percent average...