Experience in private practice, prosecutor's offices most common among U.S. attorneys general U.S. attorneys general by prior experience Note: Elected office excludes prosecutor and judge positions filled through elections Justice Department"
Having served as an assistant U.S. attorney, U.S. attorney and state attorney general in Alabama, Sessions would join at least 44 others with prior prosecutorial experience at any level of government, from local district attorneys to federal prosecutors. (We excluded jobs at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters from our definition of “prosecutorial experience.” Robert F. Kennedy, for example, served as an attorney in the department’s Criminal Division before becoming attorney general in 1961, but that experience is not counted as prosecutorial.)
Sessions would join at least 39 other attorneys general who had been elected to some position other than to a prosecutorial job. (We also excluded judicial positions filled through elections.) The last U.S. senator to become attorney general was John Ashcroft of Missouri in 2001.
Having served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1973 to 1986, Sessions would join at least 25 attorneys general with military experience.
Experience in private practice,  | prosecutor's offices most common  | among U.S. attorneys general  | U.S. attorneys general by prior experience  | 70  | Private practice  | Prosecutor  | 44  | Elected office  | 39  | Military  | 25  | Judge  | 22  | Justice Department  | 19  | Note: Elected office excludes prosecutor and judge  | positions filled through elections Justice Department"  | refers to managerial and other non prosecutorial roles at the  | department's headqua reters, including deputy attorney  | general, assistant attorney general and solicitor general.  | Source: U.S Justice Department, general Miller Center (University of  | Virginia), U.S State Depa rtment Office of the Historian.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 