WASHINGTON — Rivals-turned-friends John Warner and Mark Warner shared a walk up the Senate aisle Tuesday in a ceremony that marked generational and political change for Virginia.

Mark Warner, 54, a Democrat, wanted Republican John Warner, 81, to accompany him as he was sworn in. The two men are not related, but share an affinity that goes beyond their common surname.

"John Warner epitomizes what it means to be a senator," Mark Warner said in an interview after he took his oath. "He's been a great friend of mine, and I was so proud to have him there." Warner retired after a 30-year Senate career marked by bipartisanship. The younger Warner had mounted an unsuccessful challenge to the elder Warner in 1996, but they set that political history aside when Mark Warner became governor in 2002.

"I may be succeeding John Warner, but I'm not replacing him," the younger Warner told several hundred people at a Capitol Hill reception later Tuesday. "He is irreplaceable."

John Warner was greeted with a thunderous, sustained ovation when he took the podium at the reception.

"You see, Mark," John Warner cracked to laughter, "I should have run again."

John Ullyot, a former senior aide to John Warner, said the two men shared "a very close personal chemistry" and often teamed up on issues such as funding for military and transportation infrastructure.

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Lynn Jenkins, Kansas' former state treasurer, entered the next chapter of her political career Tuesday when she was sworn in as the state's only freshman in the new Congress.

Jenkins kept a serious face throughout much of the nearly two-hour ceremony that included the mass swearing-in of 434 members of the House. She stayed in her seat, chatting with other members seated nearby.

Jenkins, a Republican, ousted incumbent Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda in November in the 2nd Congressional District in eastern Kansas. She won that faceoff after defeating former Rep. Jim Ryun in the GOP primary.

She served two terms as state treasurer and also served in the Kansas House and Senate.

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After years of working behind the scenes for U.S. senators, Pete Olson moved to the front and center as Texas' newest member of Congress on Tuesday.

Olson, 46, was sworn in during a ceremony in which all members of the House took the oath. "It's surreal," Olson said after the ceremony, still carrying a Bible that he said his wife gave him during the campaign. "You have to make sacrifices during the campaign."

Olson, who's worked as an aide to Sen. John Cornyn and former Sen. Phil Gramm, said he was excited to see his name on the door to his office on the fifth floor of the Cannon Building.

"It's a very humbling experience," he said.

Olson is the only freshman in the 32-member Texas delegation in the U.S. House. While his arrival increases the number of Texas Republicans to 20, he's joining Congress after a rough election year for the GOP.

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Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns, a former governor and U.S. agriculture secretary, brought keepsakes of his late parents to the Senate floor when he took the oath of office.

Johanns, a Republican who is Roman Catholic, brought a rosary that belonged to his mother, who died in 2002.

"Faith is very, very important and that was something my mother wanted me to have," he said.

Johanns also carried his father's wrist watch, given to him by his mother after his father died in 1996. His father, an Iowa dairy farmer, was always reliable and dependable, he said.

"It was just a good ol' Timex _ and that was dad," Johanns said.

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It seems like Jeanne Shaheen makes history nearly every time she wins political office.

Shaheen, the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire in 1996, became the first female U.S. senator from that state when she was sworn in on Tuesday.

Now the Democratic lawmaker is the first woman in U.S. history to be elected both governor and senator from a state, according to associate Senate historian Donald Ritchie.

Shaheen plays down the significance, saying she just wants to work hard for the people of New Hampshire.

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Associated Press Writers Suzanne Gamboa, Ken Thomas and Sam Hananel contributed to this story.