The highest vote count for a State Senator was in 1958, when Richard Richards ran unopposed for reelection and won with more than 1.4 million votes. At the time, State Senate districts were apportioned by county rather than population, and Richards represented the entirety of Los Angeles County (which now contains parts of 14 Senate districts).

Only one Medal of Honor awardee has ever been elected to the California Legislature. It was U.S. Navy Captain Willis W. Bradley, who was presented with the Medal during World War I. Bradley later served as Naval Governor of Guam (1929-1931), a Member of Congress from California (1947-1949), before being elected to the Assembly in 1952.

Half of California’s Assemblymembers since 1990 have never termed out?

That’s right; of the 348 legislators to serve in the lower house in the past 21 years, only 151 (43%) termed out. Even if you exclude the 80 members currently serving, only 56% of Assemblymembers ever termed out.