I don't think anyone can deny in 2008 Obama was a lightweight first-term senator with no executive experience.

The potential gains for Mr. Edwards, a first-term senator, are particularly clear.

He is a first-term senator who previously held no public office.

He may be a first-term senator who suddenly finds himself and his party out of power here.

Mrs. Clinton blushed, smiled and rolled her eyes before continuing that she was having a great time "being a first-term senator."

Obama, a first-term senator, has ruled it out - at least for now.

Kerrey, first-term senator and former governor, was best known as a Vietnam war hero who lost part of his right leg in combat.

Hall won the senate seat easily, and by 1998 his well-voiced position on crime had made him the most popular first-term senator in America.

The political "textbook" calls for a relatively inexperienced first-term senator to run hawkishly.

Even as a first-term senator, he was sometimes so short of cash that he slept on friends' couches during weekends in Boston.