“The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.”
I agree with joe fonebone; the Seventeenth Amendment was clearly a (power grab) by the ‘progressives’ who wanted to limit state resistance to their liberal agenda. It would have been better to not have had it at all, becuase before the 17th the Senators had to rely more on the wishes of their state constitutents (through their local elected officials) it put state senators/house reps in DIRECT line of Federal controll from the bottom up, now after the 17h there is Virtually “No” controll the States have over their Senators! REPEAL THE 17th!