Candy Desk

Candy Desk

Above: the Candy Desk. Below: the location of the Candy Desk in the United States Senate.
Material	(at present) Just Born, Josh Early Candies, 3 Musketeers and The Hershey Company products.
Created	1968 by California Senator George Murphy
Present location	United States Senate Chamber. Yellow highlighting in diagram represents location.
Identification	Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey

The Candy Desk has been a tradition of the United States Senate since 1968, whereby a senator who sits at a desk near a busy entrance keeps a drawer full of candy for members of the body. The same desk has not always been used; the Candy Desk was moved to its present position on the Republican side of the chamber after over three decades on the Democratic side, where it was used by several senators. The current occupant of the Candy Desk is Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey.

In 1965, California's George Murphy joined the Senate, and kept candy in his desk to offer his colleagues, and for himself, though eating is not allowed on the Senate floor. When he left the Senate after a six-year term, other Republican senators maintained the custom. The nascent tradition did not become publicly known until the mid-1980s, when Washington Senator Slade Gorton disclosed it in announcing that he would be sitting at the Candy Desk.

Senators who have maintained the Candy Desk tradition include John McCain, Harrison Schmitt, and Rick Santorum, who stocked it with confectionery from his home state of Pennsylvania, including from the Hershey Chocolate Company. After Santorum left the Senate in 2007, the Candy Desk was maintained by a number of senators for a short time each, before Illinois Senator Mark Kirk began his stay in 2011. The desk is currently supplied with candy made in Pennsylvania, including Milky Way bars, Mars bars, and Jelly Belly jellybeans.

George Murphy was elected as the Senator from California in 1964, to take office the following year. Murphy, known as a song-and-dance man from musicals such as Broadway Melody of 1938, Broadway Melody of 1940 and For Me and My Gal, had a taste for sweets. A short time after joining the Senate, he started keeping candy in his desk; then, in 1968, he moved desks and ended up at the spot where the Candy Desk is now situated. Since more senators now passed his desk on a daily basis, he started offering the contents of his desk to his colleagues. Senators who were invited to partake in the sweets started calling Murphy's desk the "candy desk". Murphy was defeated in the 1970 Senate elections, but subsequent senators have carried on the tradition of supplying candy in their desk for the enjoyment of the Senate as a whole.