Mike Mansfield

Montana majority leader whose low-key style led the Senate through the 1960s reforms.

Overview

A Butte miner and professor of Far Eastern history, Mansfield served Montana in the House from 1943, then the Senate from 1953 to 1977, and as majority leader from 1961 to 1969 and Democratic leader until 1977, the longest leadership run to that date. He decentralized power, expanded staff, and eased the seniority system's grip, shepherding civil rights, Medicare, and immigration law while quietly opposing escalation in Vietnam, briefing the Senate with gloomy accuracy. He later served as ambassador to Japan into his eighties, and Congress named its Capitol visitors center for him and his wife Maureen.