Last time the Senate rejected a presidential candidate from the same party

Charles B. Warren, 1924. Credit – Library of Congress.

WAlthough President-elect Donald Trump has begun announcing his Cabinet appointees, many of his nominees still must be confirmed by the Senate. But Trump’s controversial and unconventional pick will test the loyalty of the Republican-led Senate and could potentially lead to a situation not seen in 100 years.

In U.S. history, only twelve cabinet nominations have been rejected, and it is rare that a president’s cabinet pick has been rejected by his own party. The last time this happened was in 1925, when the Republican-controlled Senate rejected President Calvin Coolidge’s efforts to appoint Charles B. Warren as attorney general.

TIME put Warren on its cover in January 1925 after Coolidge announced the nomination. “The president is said to have wanted Mr. Warren to be someone he was close to and could rely on,” TIME writes. “Intellectually, he is probably the ablest man Mr. Coolidge has appointed to the cabinet,” the story continued, describing Warren as “a courteous man, almost handsome.”

TIME further described Warren as “a capable strategist, difficult to deceive, always ready for a sally or counterattack, a complete and instant master of the powers of his mind.”

But soon problems arose with the nomination. Warren was involved in the Sugar Trust scandal involving the Michigan Sugar Company, where he recently resigned as president. Michigan Sugar Company was one of seventeen companies indicted by the Federal Trade Commission. (Federal Trade Commission) for “engaging in an unlawful conspiracy and conspiracy to suppress competition in the distribution and sale of beet pulp in interstate commerce,” according to a statement issued in New York. Time February 10, 1925

Warren was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. “The evidence presented clearly demonstrated that Mr. Warren was the agent and instrument of the Sugar Trust in gaining control of the Michigan sugar industry and suppressing competition from that source,” according to the statement Time statement, which also claimed that any alleged conspiracy committed by the companies was “sanctioned” by Warren.

Senators feared his connections would undermine his ability to enforce antitrust laws impartially. One congressman, Senator James Reed of Missouri, argued: “I believe that there are enough senators who have not been seduced into political defection by a bucket of family juice, or driven to stupor by buckwheat cakes and Vermont maple syrup, or lulled into moral insensibility by the tune of the waves.” crashing on the bow of the Mayflower – I hope there are enough people left to vote against the transfer of the Ministry of Justice into the hands of the Sugar Trust.”

The first confirmation vote resulted in a 40-40 tie that might have been broken by Vice President Charles Dawes had he not been dozing at the nearby Willard Hotel.

A group of Republicans warned Coolidge against running again, but the president nominated him anyway. The White House released a statement saying: “The President is working hard to secure Mr. Warren’s confirmation. . . . He decided not to have any other assignments. (In case Mr. Warren is not confirmed) he will offer him a break. However, he hopes that the unbroken three-generation practice of allowing the president to choose his own cabinet will not change. …”

The Senate rejected Warren’s proposal again, 46-39.

Since then, only two nominations have been rejected—Lewis Strauss for Commerce Secretary in 1959 and John Tower for Defense Secretary in 1989, both of whom were Republican nominees rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Write to Simmone Shah at [email protected].