| Candy Desk | |
|---|---|
 Above: the Candy Desk. Below: the location of the Candy Desk in the United States Senate. | |
 | |
| Created | 1965 by California Senator George Murphy |
| Present location | United States Senate Chamber. Yellow highlighting in diagram represents location. |
| Identification | Indiana Senator Todd Young |
The candy desk has been a tradition of the United States Senate since 1965, whereby a senator who sits at a particular desk near a busy entrance keeps a drawer full of candy for members of the body. The current occupant of the candy desk is Indiana Senator Todd Young.
In 1965, California's George Murphy joined the Senate, and kept candy in his desk for himself and his colleagues, despite eating being prohibited on the Senate floor. When he left the Senate after a six-year term, other Republican senators maintained the custom. The tradition did not become publicly known until the mid-1980s, when Washington Senator Slade Gorton revealed it in announcing that he would be sitting at the candy desk.[1]
Aside from Murphy, a total of 18 senators have maintained the candy desk tradition, including John McCain, Harrison Schmitt, and Rick Santorum, who stocked it with confectionery from his home state of Pennsylvania, including from the Hershey Chocolate Company.[2] After Santorum left the Senate in 2007, the candy desk was maintained by a number of senators for a short time each, before Pennsylvania Senator Toomey kept the desk from 2015 to 2023.
- ^ "Secret candy desk puts sugar coating on US Senate business". The Times of Israel. October 12, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ Saenz, Arlette (January 15, 2015). "Meet Pat Toomey: The Senate's Candy Man". ABC News. Retrieved October 18, 2022.