In that scenario Senate Democrats would control the chamber, and presumably Chuck Schumer would become Majority Leader. It’s important to point out, though, that the Senate never votes for a “Majority Leader.” Each party caucus votes independently for their floor leader – whichever party controls the chamber, that floor leader is the Majority Leader and the other floor leader is the Minority Leader. I may need to be corrected on this, but I believe that the position and rights of the Majority Leader (to schedule votes, to be recognized first on any matter) are a entirely a matter of Senate tradition and precedent and not formally in the rules.
Doesn’t the entire chamber vote on the nominee out of the majority party’s choice? That would mean a 50-50 tie, unless one party member switches sides. Would the VP break a tie in that case?
There is no Senate vote for Majority Leader. It’s all based on the tradition that the floor leader of the majority party, elected by the Senators from that party in a caucus meeting, is the Majority Leader. The floor leader of the minority party (as elected by that party’s caucus) is Minority Leader. In a tie Senate, it’s the VP’s party that is able to command a majority in the chamber.
The last time this happened was in 2001 when the incoming Senate was split 50-50 with VP Cheney breaking the tie. So Republican Trent Lott was recognized as Majority Leader (although there was a lot of negotiation between the parties on things like committee ratios and budgets). In May of that year, Republican Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he would caucus with the Democrats, giving that party a 51-49 edge. The day he joined the Democratic Caucus, Minority Leader Tom Daschle become Majority Leader Tom Daschle (and Lott became Minority Leader).
No Senate vote was necessary.
Very interesting. Three periods: early 1900s, when state voter preferences for Senate and for President ran together; late 1900s, when they often diverged; and today, when they run together again — favoring Republicans, mainly thanks to sparsely settled states in the mountain West.
Are there still any polls being conducted now that we’re in the Georgia runoff phase? (Ossoff vs Perdue, Warnock vs Loeffler)?
I get that polls weren’t dead-on balls-accurate again this year, and I understand there’s a whole thread devoted to theories about why that was - my question (maybe more GQ? IMHO?) is are you aware of any pollsters “taking the temperature” in Georgia, to see if maybe the two (D)'s might be making this a horse race? From what I’ve gathered they’re both huge underdogs “on paper”.
I didn’t see any polls subsequent to October 31st listed on 538, hence the question.
I haven’t seen any recent Georgia polls, either.
The Dems’ backbiting has already begun, alas:
Coward.
Well he did get his ass handed to him in the previous debate…
If the Republican candidates are running against Biden and Schumer even though they won’t be in the ballot, then the Democrats should run against Trump and McConnell, even though they won’t be on the ballot. Selling the race as a chance to vote out Mitch might be a winning tactic.
The average person doesn’t care about McConnell.
He’s very good at knowing when to leverage his power and when to scurry away into the background. Most of the time he is in the background so trying to make him the boogeyman within such a small window of time probably won’t be effective.
For what it’s worth I don’t think the average person cares about Schumer either. He’s very inoffensive and you can go weeks without really hearing from him.
They’ll run against Schumer because he’s a Scary Jew.
Scary Northern New York East Coast Liberal Urban Elite Jew.
(I really should try to harvest some wing-nut welfare $ writing this stuff. It is SO EASY!)
Mike Pence swears in his second brand new Arizona Democratic senator in just under two years. There weren’t any others since Jan 3, 1995 (Dennis DeConcini).
hopefully Cunningham does not waste time running for 2022 NC senate open seat.
Gov. Cooper might have run but his Lt. governor is now GOP member.
The downside to that otherwise great news is that, in a continuing trend, the four blue Mountain states contain about 17 million residents while the four red states (WY, ID, MT, UT) have about six million combined. The country’s small states don’t really deserve an Electoral College boost since they already have a gigantic advantage in the makeup of the Senate.
North Carolina Democrats have my full permission to drop kick anyone who so much as mentions Cal Cunningham for Senate in 2022 square in the nuts.
This does illustrate a problem for Democrats in 2022. For all the talk about them having a “good map” – i.e. they’re defending 12 seats versus 22 for Republicans – their bench in many of the Republican held “swing states” is remarkably thin. If you look at the Senate seats where the Republican incumbent won with 55% or less in 2016 – AK, FL, IN, MO, NC, PA, WI – they’re almost all dominated by Republicans at the state level. PA and WI are the only exceptions, and probably Democrats’ best opportunities for pickups.
The PA seat will be open. Prime pick up op.
The WI seat is held by Ron Johnson. This fucking guy…
I was kinda hoping Biden would swear in ossoff, as he is taking Biden’s place as youngest senator. Harris swearing in warnock makes me very happy.