The House's youngest member brought the biggest entourage to his swearing in yesterday. (Photo -- Tina Aggee, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of Photography, courtesy of Rep. Aaron Schock)

The freshest of the fresh faces in the new freshmen class of the 111th Congress won the prize for bringing the largest contingent of supporters to his swearing-in ceremony Tuesday.

Aaron Schock, a Republican of Illinois - who won his race in spite of it being the Year of Obama, in the state of Obama, no less - had about 100 supporters on hand to watch him take the oath of office.

Schock, who at 27 is the youngest member of Congress, wound up having the largest group of constituents on hand of any of the new members who lined up to have their ceremonial photographs taken with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

So many, in fact, that several dozen of Schock's biggest fans were prevented from entering the Rayburn Room of the Capitol where the ceremonies took place. But Pelosi, according to members of the new congressman's entourage, offered to pose out in Statuary Hall for several photos with chunks of the group at a time, so each of the constituents could get in at least one photo.

"The Speaker was quite gracious, a real class act," the baby-faced Schock says.

One of Schock's guests, retired public school principal Aurthur Perkins, says Pelosi did a double take at the freshman's entourage, declaring, "Did you bring ALL the voters from your district?" Then she joked, "Now I understand why you got elected." (Schock won 59 percent of the vote in his Peoria-based district, notwithstanding the Obama landslide in the Land of Lincoln.)

Pretty gutsy of the newest youngest member of Congress - who arguably has the least seniority of any of the 435 House members, given both his tender age and minority status as a Republican - to bring so many people to his swearing-in ceremony. They all flew to Washington together on a chartered DC-9.

But the big entourage might have helped the 27-year-old wunderkind not get mistaken for a House page or an intern.

Now a full-fledged member of Congress, though one at the bottom of the totem pole, Schock can look back on what he gave up by resigning his seat in the Illinois General Assembly: the chance to vote on whether to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In 2005, Schock called Blagojevich the most corrupt governor in Illinois history. As this profile of Schock in the Peoria Journal Star states, "It could be that Schock was not only correct, but prescient."

By Mary Ann Akers  |  January 7, 2009; 12:12 PM ET
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