The Leaders Are Chosen in a Closed Room. Your Member Holds the Ballot.
Democrats won both chambers on 3 November. The next vote on how that majority is used has no line on any ballot: a closed House caucus on 18 and 19 November and a Senate secret ballot in early December, and only the members you just elected get a vote.
By Our Revolution Media3 min readUpdated
Democrats won both chambers on 3 November, NBC News projected. The next vote that decides how that majority is used has no line on any ballot. House Democrats pick their candidate for Speaker in a closed caucus, and Senate Democrats pick their leader by secret ballot. The only people who vote in either room are the members you just elected and the ones already seated.
House Democrats will hold leadership elections on 18 and 19 November, Bloomberg Government reported, citing two people familiar with the plan, and CBS News reported the same dates. No caucus notice had been published by 8 November. Senate Democrats will likely vote in early December, according to Roll Call. The Senate Democratic Conference rules bar officer elections before December of the year before a new Congress.
Who is in the room
New members are sworn in on 3 January under the Twentieth Amendment, weeks after both caucus votes. The conference rules let senators elect attend and take part at the Chair's invitation and say nothing about their vote; Roll Call reports they will vote, as the Republican conference let its senators elect vote in 2024. The rules House Democrats post are the 2020 edition and are silent on members elect, but in practice the caucus that picks the leaders after an election, as in November 2022, is the incoming one. Either way, the people you elected on Tuesday are in the room before they hold office.
What the floor vote adds
The House still elects its Speaker on the floor when the new Congress convenes. The winner needs a majority of the votes cast for a person by name, spoken aloud and recorded. The Senate has no floor vote for its majority leader. The conference ballot is the whole decision.
WHO PROFITS
The secret ballot
The conference rules require contested leadership elections to be held by secret ballot, with balloting repeated until one candidate wins a majority of members present and voting. A senator can promise a constituent one thing and vote another, and no record will show it. A public statement made before the ballot is the only record a voter gets.
The case for keeping them
Jeffries told colleagues that House Democrats were "consistently successful in the minority" and promised "the dramatic change the American people are demanding in the majority." Schumer led the conference through an election that left Democrats with between 54 and 56 seats once counting ends. Supporters point to the result.
The case for replacing them
Four senators elect are on record against Schumer. Time reported on 6 November that Adam Hamilton of Kansas, Troy Jackson of Maine and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan said on the trail they would not back him, and a spokesperson for Juliana Stratton of Illinois reaffirmed on 4 November that she will not. Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota repeated at her first news conference as senator elect on 5 November that "it is time for new leadership," without naming who should replace him. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the name most often floated, said on 6 November he will not run, and no senator has declared against Schumer. No declared challenger to Jeffries had emerged by 8 November either, though some incoming progressives had not committed to him.
THE CALL
What to ask
Ask one question your member can answer in a sentence: will you vote for Jeffries, or for Schumer, in the caucus, and will you say so publicly before the vote. Say which outcome you want and why. A yes or a no on leadership counts the same to the staff tallying calls.
Who to reach
Your House member and both of your senators are the only voters in those rooms who answer to you. Offices record whether a caller is a constituent before anything else, and not every office logs calls at all, according to a survey of 107 House offices, so a call to your own member is the one most likely to be counted. If your member is newly elected, reach the transition or campaign office named on their site until they are sworn in on 3 January.
At the Reader's Scale
The Capitol switchboard, 202 224 3121, connects you to any senator's or representative's office. Find your representative at house.gov and your senators at senate.gov. Los Angeles County readers will find the delegation, the new district lookup and the two senators on our leaders page. Call before 18 November for the House, and before the first week of December for the Senate.
THE RECORDEvery primary document this piece links to
Terms that recur across the record, defined once. Each H3 below is a term; the paragraph under it is the definition the site shows on hover, and the line after it names the primary source.
Administrative Procedure Act
The 1946 statute that sets how federal agencies make rules and how courts review them. It requires notice and public comment for most rules and lets courts set aside agency action that is arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.
A meeting employees must attend, on paid time and under threat of discipline, where the employer argues against unionizing. The NLRB held mandatory meetings of this kind unlawful in Amazon.com Services in November 2024, applying the rule to future cases only.
The NLRB's 2023 standard from Cemex Construction Materials Pacific. When a union shows majority support, the employer must recognize it or promptly file for an election, and serious unfair labor practices before the vote lead to a bargaining order instead of a rerun. The Sixth Circuit held the standard invalid on 6 March 2026.
The doctrine from Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984) under which courts deferred to an agency's reasonable reading of an ambiguous statute it administers. The Supreme Court overruled it in Loper Bright in 2024.
A 1996 law that lets Congress overturn a new federal rule with a joint resolution of disapproval, passed by simple majorities on a fast track and signed by the president. A disapproved rule cannot be reissued in substantially the same form without new authority from Congress.
The 1998 law that governs who may serve as an acting officer in a Senate confirmed post and for how long. Actions taken by someone serving outside its limits are generally without legal effect.
Extended debate that blocks a Senate vote. Ending it through cloture takes three fifths of senators, usually 60, so most legislation needs 60 votes to advance. Budget reconciliation bills are exempt.
Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), which upheld limits on the president's power to fire FTC commissioners and became the legal basis for independent agencies. The Supreme Court overruled it in Trump v. Slaughter on 29 June 2026, except for agencies that exercise no executive power.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which lets a president regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency. In February 2026 the Supreme Court held that it does not authorize tariffs.
When the executive withholds or delays spending money Congress has appropriated. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 allows it only through reported deferrals or through rescission proposals, which lapse unless Congress approves them within 45 days of continuous session.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), which overruled Chevron and held that courts must decide for themselves what an ambiguous statute means rather than defer to the agency's reading.
The principle that Congress cannot hand its lawmaking power to another branch. Courts uphold a delegation if the statute supplies an intelligible principle to guide it, a test from J. W. Hampton v. United States (1928) that has struck down only two laws, both in 1935.
A rescission proposal sent to Congress within 45 days of the end of a fiscal year, so the frozen funds expire before Congress has to act. GAO has found the maneuver unlawful under the Impoundment Control Act, most recently on 29 September 2026.
The minimum number of members a board or commission needs in order to act. The NLRB needs three of its five seats filled; the FEC needs four of its six commissioners to vote on enforcement, rules, or advisory opinions.
A budget process that lets Congress pass tax, spending, and debt limit changes with a simple majority in the Senate, outside the filibuster. It starts with instructions in a budget resolution, and the Byrd rule strikes provisions with no budgetary effect.
A layoff of federal employees under OPM rules that rank workers by tenure, veterans' preference, length of service, and performance to decide who is released. Often shortened to RIF.
The president's authority to fire executive officers, and how far Congress can limit it. In Trump v. Slaughter (29 June 2026) the Supreme Court held that for cause protection for FTC commissioners is unconstitutional, so the president can remove members of most independent agencies at will.
An excepted service classification, first created by executive order in 2020, that removes civil service job protections from career employees in policy influencing roles. Revoked in 2021, reinstated by order in January 2025, and made final by OPM rule in 2026 under the name Schedule Policy/Career.
The 2026 name for Schedule F. Career employees placed in it keep their jobs but lose adverse action appeal rights, so they can be removed without the usual civil service process.
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which lets the president impose an import surcharge of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days to address balance of payments problems. A 10 percent surcharge ran under it from 24 February to 24 July 2026.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which lets the president restrict imports the Commerce Department finds threaten national security. It underlies the steel, aluminum, and auto tariffs.
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which lets the U.S. Trade Representative impose duties or other measures on countries whose trade practices are found unfair or burdensome to U.S. commerce.
A provision of the Tariff Act of 1930 allowing new duties of up to 50 percent on imports from countries found to discriminate against American commerce. It went unused for decades before the 2026 tariff on Canadian goods.
Conduct the National Labor Relations Act forbids to employers or unions, such as threatening, firing, or bribing workers over organizing, or refusing to bargain in good faith. Charges are filed with the NLRB.