# When will McConnell no longer be the majority leader?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-mcconnell-no-longer-be-the-majority-leader/929860>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [January 7, 2021, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-mcconnell-no-longer-be-the-majority-leader/929860 "2021-01-07T00:02:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-mcconnell-no-longer-be-the-majority-leader/929860/21 "2021-01-07T18:25:01Z")

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As a practical matter, it doesn’t matter which party controls the Senate between now and the Inauguration. Because, believe it or not, they’ve skipped town and won’t be back until the Inauguration.

They had a ‘[state work period](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/2021_schedule.htm)’ scheduled, and they’re keeping it, no matter how much you’d think the events of yesterday might require some sort of Congressional response.

The House is also on vacation. They [were originally scheduled](https://www.majorityleader.gov/calendar/2021) to be in session through Friday and then have a ‘district work period’ until the Inauguration, but they cut short their session and have also skipped town.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-mcconnell-no-longer-be-the-majority-leader/929860/22 "2021-01-08T04:08:35Z")

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> [@flurb](#):
>
> Just to clarify a few things, there is no vote in the Senate on who will be “Majority Leader” and the position is almost entirely absent from the official Senate rules. The position and its authorities exist almost entirely as a matter of Senate precedents.
> 
> At the start of each Congress, Senators of each party meet in party caucuses to select their respective floor leaders. The one who’s party can command a majority in the Senate is Majority Leader, and the other is Minority Leader. There’s no Senate vote to confirm this – it just is. In the case of Jeffords’ switch to the Democrats in 2001, nobody voted to replace Trent Lott with Tom Daschle as Majority Leader. Once Jeffords began to caucus with the Democrats, Lott and Daschle just switched titles.

And to clarify my point: it wasn’t that they necessarily do actually vote on who is majority leader. It’s more that, if there was some dispute over it, the only possible remedy would be a vote, and the majority would win and thus get to decide who is the majority leader–which means they dictate what comes to the floor.

It’s rather similar to the hypothetical talk about whether the Vice President could recognize someone other than the majority leader to be the first person to bring things to to floor. The majority would object, and then vote to say that the majority leader should be recognized first.

And that is essentially what the majority leader is as a role–the person who initially brings things to the floor, and the powers this grants them. The rest of their job is just as leader of their party in the Senate, and thus isn’t really different than the minority leader.

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