Editing Robert Byrd (section)

===Public service records===
[[File:Robert C. Byrd – 1967.jpg|thumb|200px|Byrd early in his Senate career]]
[[2006 United States Senate election in West Virginia|Byrd was elected to a record ninth consecutive full Senate term]] in the [[2006 United States elections|November 7, 2006, midterm elections]]. He became the [[List of United States Congressmen by longevity of service#U.S. Senate time|longest-serving]] senator in American history on June 12, 2006, surpassing [[Strom Thurmond]] of [[South Carolina]] with 17,327 days of service.<ref name="TheHill_longevity">{{cite news | title=Byrd poised to break Thurmond's record | first=Jonathan
|last=Allen | newspaper=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]| date=May 31, 2006 | url=http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/053106/news2.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614190120/http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/053106/news2.html| archive-date=June 14, 2006}}</ref> On November 18, 2009, Byrd became the longest-serving member in congressional history, with 56 years, 320 days of combined service in the House and Senate, passing [[Carl Hayden]] of Arizona.<ref name="news.aol.com"/><ref name="111809_CNN_Byrd">{{cite news | title=West Virginia's Byrd becomes the longest-serving member of Congress | first=Tom|last=Cohen | website=[[CNN]]| date=November 18, 2009 | url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/18/robert.byrd.congress.record/index.html | access-date=November 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091119175134/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/18/robert.byrd.congress.record/index.html | archive-date=November 19, 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref> Previously, Byrd had held the record for the [[List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service#U.S. Senate time|longest unbroken tenure]] in the Senate (Thurmond resigned during his first term and was re-elected seven months later). He is the only senator ever to serve more than 50 years. Including his tenure as a state legislator from 1947 to 1953, Byrd's service on the political front exceeded 60 continuous years. Byrd, who never lost an election, cast his 18,000th vote on June 21, 2007, the most of any senator in history.<ref name="111809_CNN_Byrd"/><ref>{{cite news | title=Another milestone for Sen. Byrd: His 18,000th vote | first1=Jill|last1=Lawrence|first2=Eugene |last2=Kiely |work=[[USA Today]] | date=June 21, 2007 | url=http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/06/another-milesto.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015062655/http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/06/another-milesto.html | archive-date=October 15, 2007}}</ref> [[John Dingell]] broke Byrd's record as longest-serving member of Congress on June 7, 2013.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/06/07/dingell-breaks-record-after-57-years-in-house/?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth|title=Dingell Breaks Record After 57 Years in House|last=Ballhaus|first=Rebecca|date=June 7, 2013|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=August 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009075703/https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/06/07/dingell-breaks-record-after-57-years-in-house/?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth|archive-date=October 9, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Upon the death of former Florida Senator [[George Smathers]] on January 20, 2007, Byrd became the last living United States senator from the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Senators Who Have Cast More than 10,000 Votes | publisher=United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee Vote Information Office | date=January 3, 2009 | url=http://senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/three_column_table/10000_or_more_votes.htm| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060531105507/https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/three_column_table/10000_or_more_votes.htm | archive-date=May 31, 2006 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Having taken part in the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union, Byrd was the last surviving senator to have voted on a bill granting [[U.S. state|statehood]] to a U.S. territory. At the time of Byrd's death, 14 sitting or former members of the Senate had not been born when Byrd's tenure in the Senate began, as well as then-President [[Barack Obama]].