U.S. Senate, 1950-1994 [bulk 1980-1994]

In May of 1980 Maine Governor Joseph Brennan appointed George Mitchell to fill Edmund S. Muskie's Senate seat, vacated when President Jimmy Carter appointed Muskie U.S. Secretary of State. In 1982, Mitchell won reelection with sixty-one percent of the vote. After the congressional elections in 1984 he was voted chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). In 1986, during Mitchell's committee chairmanship, the Democrats won eleven seats and a majority in the Senate. In 1987 Mitchell was appointed a member of the Select Committee on Iran-Contra. Mitchell won his second reelection campaign with eighty-one percent of the vote in 1988. Mitchell's performance on the Iran-Contra committee and his success as DSCC chairman allowed him to develop a broad base of confidence and support from the Senate as a whole, and Senate Democrats in particular, in a relatively short period of time. This enabled him to capture his party's nomination for Senate majority leader. Mitchell also served as a member of the Finance Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the Governmental Affairs Committee. Visit Senate Career Highlights to read more about George Mitchell's work in the Senate.In early 1994 Mitchell announced that he would not run for another term after the completion of his second full term in January, 1995.

Mitchell's Senate office was organized in four basic functions: administrative operations; legislative activities; constituent services; and press and media activities.