The People's House
The House of Representatives is often referred to as “The People's House” because its members represent the smallest unit of the population. The typical House district encompasses approximately 600,000 people. Moreover, with re-election every two years, members tend to spend a great deal of time in the district tending to their constituents.
It is often the case that constituents in need turn to their representative for assistance, whether in finding a lost Social Security check, helping a son or daughter get into a military academy, or navigating the federal bureaucracy. Not surprisingly, most members specialize in constituency casework, with the good ones having elevated it to an art form. Over the course of their careers, many members will come to know thousands of their constituents by name — a surefire way to guarantee a long tenure in the House!
The first woman elected to Congress was Jeanette Rankin, a Republican who captured Montana's lone House seat in 1916. An avowed pacifist, Rankin attempted to run for the Senate the following year but was defeated in the primary. In 1940, she was voted back to the House, where she cast the only vote in Congress against the declaration of war on Japan. Rankin was easily defeated for re-election the following year.
This is by design. The two-year terms, smaller districts, and direct election by the people were intended to make the House a populist institution where minority interests give way to majority passions. In fact, until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, which called for direct election of U.S. senators, the House of Representatives was the only branch of the federal government elected directly by the people.
