10 things about James Talent
1. Talent was born and raised in Des Peres, Mo., just outside St. Louis.
2. His mother taught herself stenography and started a successful court reporter's business; his father was a lawyer.
3. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1978, where he received the Arnold J. Lien Prize as the most outstanding undergraduate in political science. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1981.
4. After law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
5. Talent became a Christian in 1984, after listening to Luis Palau, an evangelist with Focus on the Family.
6. Talent pays $3,700 a month to share a Washington, D.C.-apartment with Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican.
7. In his Senate office, he stocks Missouri-based Fitz's cream soda and Russell Stover candy to give to visitors.
8. One of his hobbies, fishing, got him in trouble in 2002, when it was discovered he'd been fishing without a license.
9. In 2001, Talent was paid $90,000 to teach a single course in the fall and spring semesters at his alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. The course title? "Thinking Like a Congressman."
10. He was elected to the Senate in 2002 when he defeated Jean Carnahan, who had been appointed to the seat for a special two-year term following her husband's death just before the 2000 senatorial campaign, which her husband, former Gov. Mel Carnahan, won posthumously.