When he takes his oath of office as Virginia’s junior U.S. senator next month, Democrat Tim Kaine will share a distinction that has nothing to do with the state he represents.

Kaine is one of three senators elected in the 2012 cycle to graduate from the University of Missouri, according to this story in the Columbia Daily Tribune.That’s the largest number of senators to hail from a single, state-supported school, the newspaper reports.

Kaine, who grew up near Kansas City, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Missouri before going to Harvard Law School. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and New Mexico Sen.-elect Martin Heinrich, both Democrats, also have degrees from Missouri.

In case you’re wondering, the state’s soon-to-be senior senator, Democrat Mark Warner, earned a bachelor’s degree at George Washington University and a law degree from Harvard.

– Michael Sluss