in 1934, becoming a candidate for the United States Senate. Senate Chávez was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from New Mexico in 1934. He lost narrowly to Republican incumbent Bronson M. Cutting. However, Cutting was killed in an airplane crash on May 6, 1935, and five days later, 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. (Octaviano Larrazolo, also from New Mexico, was the first Hispanic to be elected to the Senate, but he was only elected to the remainder of an unexpired term and never served a full term.) Chávez was re-elected again in 1946, 1952 and 1958, and served until his death in 1962. He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Works from 1949 to 1953, and again from 1955 until his death. In 1954, Senate Republicans attempted to remove Chávez from his seat, claiming that irregularities from the 1952 election meant the election results could not be trusted. A resolution that claimed no candidate had won the 1952 election, and therefore requiring the Republican governor of New Mexico to appoint a new senator, was defeated by a vote of 36-53. Personal life In 1911, Chávez married Imelda Espinosa, a member of a prominent New Mexico family. In 1914, they moved to Belen. The couple had three children: Dennis, Jr., Gloria and Ymelda. Dennis Chávez died of cancer, attributed to his being a lifelong smoker, in Washington, D.C. on November 18, 1962, and was buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Congress honored his memory with a minute of silence, and then-Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at his funeral. At the time of his death, he was fourth-ranking in Senate seniority. Legacy Chávez, only the second-ever Hispanic member of the US Senate, was the first US-born Hispanic elected to the Senate (Octaviano Larrazolo was born in Mexico). He was also the first person born in New Mexico elected by the state to the Senate. By a large margin, he is the longest-serving Hispanic US senator. He was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 35¢ Great Americans series (1980–2000) postage stamp. His daughter, Ymelda Chavez Dixon,