Major Leadership Election Contests in the Senate: A 27-Year Survey

Publication Date: November 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Abstract:

This report contains data on elections in the Democratic and Republican party conferences for principal congressional leaders within each party from the 94th through the 107th Congresses. It reflects actual balloting. Also identified are the six Senators who have served as presidents pro tempore of the Senate, the two who have served as deputy presidents pro tempore, and the one Senator who has served as president pro tempore emeritus. These are largely positions of honor, for which there is no formal election in either party conference.

Other tables provide the names and states of the candidates for each major party office, the congress(es) in which they were running and the votes they received. Also noted are Senators elected with no opposition.

In numerous instances, leaders were selected without opposition. In cases where published accounts did not mention contests for a particular office, it was assumed there was only one candidate. The data do not include notices of announced candidacies that were abandoned before conference voting took place.