The House of Representatives and Senate? ?

Question

Why do you think the house is directly elected by the people; whereas, the Senate is elected by the States?

Answer 1

Who thinks that?  In the beginning, the Constitution called for the house to be elected by the people of each state, by district, but for senators to be elected by the state's legislature.  The 17th amendment (ratified in 1913) provided for senators to be elected directly by the people of each state.

Answer 2

They are both elected by the people, however each state gets 2 senators, regardless of how many people live there.  The house (of representatives) are elected according to proportion of the population.  Thus large states, such as California, Texas, and New York get a lot more Representatives than smaller states.

Answer 3

In the original Constitution, prior to amendment, the Senate was indeed selected by the state legislatures.  This is one more way the Framers sought to bring in the States in the governance of the country.