Who is the Senate majority leader?

John Thune, a Republican senator from South Dakota, is the Senate majority leader, according to the Senate's list of current leadership and officers for the 119th Congress. The same list names Charles E. Schumer of New York as the Democratic leader.

The Senate's top party leaders

These names come from the Senate's leadership list for the 119th Congress.

The Senate's list of majority and minority leaders shows Thune as majority leader and Schumer as minority leader for the 119th Congress, which it dates 2025 to 2027.

Which party holds the majority

The Senate's party division page lists 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 independents in the 119th Congress, with no vacancies among the 100 seats. The page dates the 119th Congress from January 3, 2025, to January 3, 2027.

What the majority leader does

The Senate's history of the position says the Democratic and Republican conferences each elect one of their members as party leader with each new Congress. The leader of the party in power serves as majority leader and the other serves as minority leader.

According to that page, the majority leader:

• schedules business on the floor by calling bills from the calendar, working with committee chairs and ranking members;
• keeps members of the party informed about the daily legislative program;
• works out, in consultation with the minority leader, the unanimous consent agreements that can limit debate time on a measure and divide it between the parties;
• is called on first by the presiding officer when several senators seek recognition at the same time, ahead of the minority leader and the managers of the bill.

The page says this right of first recognition lets the majority leader offer amendments, substitutes and motions to reconsider before any other senator. It also says the position of party floor leader is not in the Constitution and developed gradually in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For a deadline now before Congress, see whether the government will shut down on December 11.

Thune's record in Congress

Thune's Senate biography says he grew up in Murdo, South Dakota, and served three terms as the state's only member of the House of Representatives. It says he won his Senate seat in 2004 and was elected to further terms in 2010, 2016 and 2022.

He was previously the Senate Republican whip from 2019 to 2024, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 2012 to 2018 and chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee from 2009 to 2011, according to the biography, which also says he serves as the Senate majority leader. It says he serves on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and the Finance Committee in the 119th Congress.

Who came before

The Senate's list of leaders includes these three most recent Congresses.

A note on that list says Mitch McConnell served as majority leader from January 3 to January 20, 2021, at the start of the 117th Congress, and that Schumer became majority leader after a Democratic majority was established on January 20, 2021.