In Senate races, facial hair appears largely limited to long-shot candidates. Republican Clint Didier, who is campaigning for the GOP Senate nomination in Washington state, wears a mustache. Democrat Tracy Potter, Hoeven’s November opponent in North Dakota, has a goatee, and Oregon Republican Jim Huffman sports a beard.
At the moment, just one sitting senator has a mustache: Roland Burris of Illinois, who is retiring.
“Lower-nose accoutrements are often associated with certain professions, such as law enforcement, motorcycle maintenance, pornography, pipe fitters and horseshoe fitters union 173,” said Aaron Perlut, chairman of the American Mustache Institute, a mustache-advocacy group based in St. Louis. (White House senior adviser David Axelrod and Attorney General Eric Holder were both finalists for AMI’s 2009 Mustached American of the Year award.)
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