Proposal and Ratification

By 1912, 239 political parties at both the state and national level had pledged some form of direct election, and 33 states had introduced the use of direct primaries. Twenty-seven states had called for a constitutional convention on the subject, with 31 states needed to reach the threshold; Arizona and New Mexico each achieved statehood that year (bringing the total number of states to 48), and were expected to support the motion, while Alabama and Wyoming, already states, had passed resolutions in favor of a convention without formally calling for one. To avoid a "runaway convention", in which unexpected or damaging amendments could be considered, the proposal to mandate direct elections for the Senate was finally introduced in the Congress; on June 12, 1911, it passed in the Senate by a vote of 64 to 24, with 4 not voting, and on May 13, 1912, passed in the House by a vote of 238 to 39, with 110 not voting. By April 8, 1913, the proposed amendment had been ratified by three-fourths of the states, adding it to the Constitution. On May 31, 1913, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan declared the amendment to have been adopted.

Ralph A. Rossum, writing in the San Diego Law Review, notes that the debate over the amendment's adoption lacked "any serious or systematic considerations of its potential impact on federalism...The popular press, the party platforms, the state memorials, the House and Senate debates, and the state legislative debates during ratification focused almost exclusively on expanding democracy, eliminating political corruption, defeating elitism and freeing the states from what they had come to regard as an onerous and difficult responsibility. The only three exceptions were Root, Hoar, and Representative Franklin Bartlett". Ratification occurred in:

1. Massachusetts May 22, 1912
2. Arizona June 3, 1912
3. Minnesota June 10, 1912
4. New York January 15, 1913
5. Kansas January 17, 1913
6. Oregon January 23, 1913
7. North Carolina January 25, 1913
8. California January 28, 1913
9. Michigan January 28, 1913
10. Iowa January 30, 1913
11. Montana January 30, 1913
12. Idaho January 31, 1913
13. West Virginia February 4, 1913
14. Colorado February 5, 1913
15. Nevada February 6, 1913
16. Texas February 7, 1913
17. Washington February 7, 1913
18. Wyoming February 8, 1913
19. Arkansas February 11, 1913
20. Maine February 11, 1913
21. Illinois February 13, 1913
22. North Dakota February 14, 1913
23. Wisconsin February 18, 1913
24. Indiana February 19, 1913
25. New Hampshire February 19, 1913
26. Vermont February 19, 1913
27. South Dakota February 19, 1913
28. Oklahoma February 24, 1913
29. Ohio February 25, 1913
30. Missouri March 7, 1913
31. New Mexico March 13, 1913
32. Nebraska March 14, 1913
33. New Jersey March 17, 1913
34. Tennessee April 1, 1913
35. Pennsylvania April 2, 1913
36. Connecticut April 8, 1913
37. Louisiana June 11, 1913
38. Alabama April 11, 2002
39. Delaware July 1, 2010
40. Maryland April 1, 2012

The following states did not ratify the Seventeenth Amendment

1. Utah (explicitly rejected amendment)
2. Florida
3. Georgia
4. Kentucky
5. Mississippi
6. Rhode Island
7. South Carolina
8. Virginia