History of Senate Republican Leadership

Party leaders presently play a central role in managing the Senate. Power in the institution is centralized in both parties’ floor leaders. The Democratic Floor Leader, Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Republican Floor Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are involved in all aspects of the Senate’s deliberations.

Newly elected senators will gather in the nation's capital with their party's incumbent senators to elect their party leaders, including their Floor Leaders, after next month's elections. While Schumer is running unopposed for another term as the Democratic Floor Leader, McConnell is not seeking another term as the Republican Floor Leader and will step down from that role at the end of the year. 

McConnell's decision to exit leadership allows rank-and-file Republicans to rethink how their elected party leaders operate. The structure and operation of Republicans’ present leadership team developed over time to address the rank-and-file’s needs. Republicans can continue that development in this year’s leadership elections.

The History

Senate Republicans have not always had elected party leaders. For much of the Senate’s history, individuals of exceptional ability provided leadership for the institution (e.g., John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster; Charles Sumner, R-Mass., and George F. Hoar, R-Mass., among Republicans). Committee chairs and ranking members also provided leadership, especially in the latter half of the 19th century and first two decades of the 20th century (e.g., the “Senate Four,” consisting of Nelson Aldrich, R-R.I., who chaired the Finance Committee, William Allison, R-Iowa, who chaired the Appropriations Committee, Orville Platt, R-Conn., who chaired the Judiciary Committee, and John Spooner, R-Wis., who chaired the Rules Committee).

Senate Republicans’ first official party leadership position – the Chairman of the Republican Conference – dates to the 36th Congress (1859-1861). John Parker Hale, R-N.H., was the party’s first elected Conference Chair. However, committee leaders provided most of the leadership in the Senate’s deliberations. 

After the 1912 elections, Senate Republicans were in the minority for the first time in two decades. Because of this dramatic change, they started following the example of Senate Democrats. They empowered their Conference Chair – Jacob H. Gallinger, R-N.H. They also began to refer to their Conference Chair as the “Republican Leader” or the “minority leader.”

Gallinger proposed that Republicans again emulate Senate Democrats three years later, in 1915. He suggested that Republicans create a Whip position to help ensure that the party’s rank-and-file stuck together as a team on important votes whenever possible. (“Whip" was a fox-hunting term. It referred to the individual on hunts responsible for ensuring that the dogs did not stray and instead stuck together as a team during a chase, thereby increasing the likelihood of success.) Gallinger’s Republican colleagues agreed and tapped James W. Wadsworth, R-N.Y., to serve as Conference Secretary and Whip.  

Shortly thereafter, Republicans separated the Conference Secretary and Whip positions. Wadsworth continued to serve as Conference Secretary, and Republicans elected Charles Curtis, R-Kan., to serve as Whip. The Conference Secretary would eventually be called the Conference Vice Chairman. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, was the first Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference.

In the 1930s, Republicans abolished the elected Whip position for a short period because they didn’t need it. The number of Senate Republicans dropped considerably during the first half of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, effectively lowering their coordination costs. Instead of electing someone to serve as Whip for the entire two-year Congress, the Republican Conference Chair at the time, Charles L. McNary, R-Ore., appointed individual senators to serve as Whip during debates on specific bills.

During Republican leadership’s early period, the Conference Chairman also served as an informal Floor Leader. There was no separate Floor Leader position in the Republicans’ elected leadership. Committee chairs made motions to proceed to legislation on the Senate floor (i.e., to begin debate on bills) when Republicans were in the majority. And committee chairs - or ranking members when Republicans were in the minority - managed floor debate for their fellow partisans. 

Republicans typically selected their Conference Chairman and informal Floor Leader based on seniority. In 1925, however, Curtis became the first to be selected based on his skill and effectiveness.

In 1945, Republicans separated the Conference Chairman and Floor Leader positions in 1945. They elected Arthur H. Vandenberg, R-Mich., as Conference Chairman and tapped Wallace H. White, Jr., R-Maine, as their first full-time Floor Leader.

The Republican Policy Committee (RPC) was created in 1946 and formally organized in 1947. Robert A. Taft, R-Ohio, served as the Republicans' first Policy Committee Chairman. At the time, Taft declined suggestions that he serve as Republican Floor Leader instead. Taft believed that the Policy Committee Chairman position was more important. He planned on using it as a platform to combat an increasingly unpopular President Harry Truman ahead of the 1948 presidential election.

While the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) dates to 1916 (John W. Weeks, R-Mass., served as its first chairman), its Chairman did not become an official part of Republicans’ elected leadership until 1980. The Conference Chairman and informal Floor Leader instead appointed the NRSC Chair at the beginning of every two-year Congress. During this period, the Floor Leader also established the practice – followed to this day – of only tapping out-of-cycle Republicans (i.e., Republicans not running for reelection). H. John Heinz, III, R-Pa., and Robert W. Packwood, R-Ore., were the first two NRSC Chairman elected by their Republican colleagues.

The Takeaway

Republicans’ leadership team has not always looked like it does today. Over time, it developed as Senate Republicans adjusted their elected leadership to meet their needs in a changing world. Republicans created new leadership positions when the old ones weren’t meeting their needs. And they altered the relationship between their elected leaders whenever doing so helped them to better achieve their goals.