Rick Allen: “I join my colleagues in saluting the senior Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Thurmond, as he prepares to celebrate his…”

“I join my colleagues in saluting the senior Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Thurmond, as he prepares to celebrate his 100th birthday. James Strom Thurmond is not just a man who is loved by the people of South Carolina, who elected him to a remarkable eight terms to the Senate, but he is a man who is respected and admired by this body and institution in which he serves. Others who have spoken, who are much more senior to me, have recounted his distinguished careers, stories, the elections, the changes in our country over the years, and also the positive changes in Senator Thurmond as he has moved forward with America and the times, in making sure that all Americans have opportunities in education, to compete and succeed in life. I find it interesting that he was the first person in 1954 to ever be elected to a national office by a write-in vote. The people of South Carolina elected Strom Thurmond to the Senate by a write-in vote. At that time, I was not paying too much attention to politics since I was only 2 years old when he won that election. There are a lot of stories to tell and a lot of impressions have been made in the short time I have been in the Senate. I knew I had come to a very special place when the first meeting of the Republican Senate caucus was singing happy birthday for Senator Thurmond's 98th birthday, and I was thinking of all the stories of Strom Thurmond, this living legend.”