Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.): “I had an adopted relative when I was an itty bitty kid. It was Ronald Reagan. My dad was a claims adjuster and he was a broadcaster at [the same radio station]. They became such good friends. He’d bring him home and I thought he was my uncle.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.): “I guess that would be my great-grandfather; John D. Nelson was my uncle.”
Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho): “Robert E. Lee. Through my mother-in-law’s side of the family. They go right back to the Lees.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.): “There’s a baseball player named Jimmie Foxx. I wear these X earrings because of that. I’d love to be related to him, but I’m not related to him.”
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.): “Mo Udall was my cousin. My granddad, Jesse Addison Udall, was the chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court.”
Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas): “Just tell ’em we’re not famous, we’re ordinary. I think my folks said they were related to Winfried Scott [a war general].”
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.): “My mother’s great-great-grandfather, a Scotsman, built Balmoral Castle. His name was James Stewart — it’s about as Scottish as you get.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): “Sorry, it’s a family of non-famous people.”
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.): “One of my distant cousins was the first and fourth governor of Kentucky. Isaac Shelby was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and helped win the battle of King’s Mountain. I don’t know how you define famous, but he’s in the history books.”