A few former staffers were lifted to seats of power in the Republican midterm wave. At least seven former congressional aides - all Republicans - won House of Representative seats in Tuesday's midterm elections.
The strangest case may be Frank Guinta, who worked for former Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) from 2003-2005. Guinta ran for his old boss's seat, only to find Bradley calling on him to drop out of the race due to a mysterious infusion of Guinta's personal cash into his campaign despite not having listed any significant cash horde on his personal financial disclosure. Guinta later amended the filing and the controversy didn't keep him from victory.
Also included in the count is Kevin Yoder, who was an intern on Capitol Hill only eight short years ago and was elected in the 3rd district of Kansas. The 34-year-old Yoder briefly interned for Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) in 2002, the same year he received his law degree from the University of Kansas.
Other former staffers who are now members-elect, with their home district and most recent congressional employer:
* Bill Huizenga, elected in Michigan's 2nd District, aide to Rep. Pete Hoekstra;
* Marlin Stutzman, Indiana's 3rd District, Rep. Mark Souder;
* Rob Woodall, Georgia's 7th District, Rep. John Linder;
* Cory Gardner, Colorado's 4th District, Sen. Wayne Allard;
* Jamie Herrera, Washington's 3rd District, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
In order to accomodate the increased number of staffers-turned-members in our database, we have also made a small change to our site to prominently show when a staffer has member records, and vice-versa. As you can see on this page, if a person has member and staff record in our database we display a link so you can easily switch between the two. We hope this change helps our users to quickly find exactly the information they are looking for.
UPDATE: Our original post missed at least three former staffers who are now headed to Congress. Todd Young, who was elected in Indiana's 9th District, worked for Sen. Richard Lugar from 2001-2003. Terri Sewell, a representative-elect from Alabama, also interned for then-Rep. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) and Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), and Hansen Clarke from Michigan was previously chief of staff for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)
