Sam Rayburn

Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn (1882–1961), affectionately known across Washington simply as 'Mr. Speaker', was an American Democratic statesman from Texas who served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives for over seventeen years—longer than any other person in American history. Entering Congress in 1913, Rayburn served continuously for forty-eight years without ever facing a serious electoral challenge in his North Texas district.

Renowned for spotless personal integrity—refusing travel reimbursements and gifts from lobbyists—Rayburn served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's legislative lieutenant, passing critical New Deal legislation including the Securities and Exchange Act, the Rural Electrification Act, and the Federal Communications Act. Holding bipartisan evening strategy sessions in his Capitol hideaway ('The Board of Education'), Rayburn steered wartime defense budgets, the Marshall Plan, and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 through the House.