Gerrymandering

Just in case you’ve forgotten, U.S. Senators were not always elected by the people. The Constitution allowed the state legislatures to determine how their states’ Senators would be chosen. In the early days after the Constitution was ratified, legislatures often chose the Senators themselves. This was changed in 1913, by the 17th Amendment, which provided that Senators would be chosen by the people in the same way the Representatives were.