Question 27 of 128 · American Government · System of Government
How many senators does each state have?
Accepted answer
- Two (2)
Why this is the answer
Every state has two senators, no more and no fewer. Article I, Section 3 sets the number and gives each senator one vote, so every state casts two votes in the Senate whatever its size. California and Wyoming, at opposite ends of the population scale, each have two. The rule is among the best protected in the Constitution. Article V, which explains how the Constitution is amended, ends with a promise: no state can be deprived of its equal vote in the Senate without its own consent. The article's only other limit on amendments applied until 1808, so this is the one that still stands. A state's equal share of the Senate cannot be taken from it over its objection, even by the regular amendment process. Equal seats were the price of agreement. At the Constitutional Convention the delegates could not agree on whether seats in Congress should follow population or be the same for every state, and they settled it with one chamber of each kind. The House follows population; the Senate gives each state the same two seats. The 2008 study lessons say the result is that states with few people still have a strong voice in the national government. How the two senators are chosen has changed. The original text had state legislatures pick them. The 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave that choice to the people of each state, who now elect both of their senators. The official answer is two. People who miss it usually confuse the Senate with the House, where the number does depend on population, and answer "it depends on the state." In the Senate it does not. Another slip is answering one, from a vague memory that each state has a single voice. Each state does have equal weight, but that weight is two seats. The next question on the official list asks why.
Sources
- The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription · National Archives
- One Nation, One People: The USCIS 2025 Civics Test Study Guide · M-1175 (2025)
- Learn About the United States: Quick Civics Lessons for the Naturalization Test (2008 version) · M-638 (rev. 08/21)
- Constitutional Amendments 11-27 · National Archives
Practice 20 random questions like the interview
Drawn from the official 128, 12 correct answers to pass, with an explanation after every answer.