Chavez, Dennis, 1888-1962

Dionisio "Dennis" Chávez (April 8, 1888 – November 18, 1962) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1931 to 1935, and in the United States Senate from 1935 to 1962. He was the first Hispanic person elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate and the first U.S. Senator to be born in New Mexico.

Born in Los Chavez in the New Mexico Territory, his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1895; Chávez attended school until 7th grade when financial hardships necessitated that he work. After spending time as a delivery boy and engineer, Chávez became active in state politics, eventually being offered a legislative clerkship in Senator Andreius Jones’s Washington office. In 1917 Chavez moved his young family to Washington, D.C., and enrolled in night classes at Georgetown University Law School. After graduating in 1920, he returned home to Albuquerque, where he began practicing law.

In 1922, Chávez won a seat in the New Mexico house of representatives. In 1930, he was elected to New Mexico's one at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat, and was re-elected in 1932. Chávez served as chairman of the House Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation. He did not seek re-election to the House in 1934, becoming a candidate for the United States Senate, narrowly losing to Republican incumbent Bronson M. Cutting. After Cutting's death in May 1935, Chávez was appointed to fill the vacancy pending a special election. In 1936, Chávez was elected to the remaining four years of Cutting's term, and then won a full term of his own in 1940, becoming the first person of Hispanic descent to be elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate. Chávez was re-elected three more times. He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Works from 1949 to 1953, and again from 1955 until his death.

Dennis Chávez died of cancer, attributed to his being a lifelong smoker, in Washington, D.C., and was buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque, New Mexico.