The 2020 United States Senate elections were held on November 3, 2020, with the 33 class 2 seats of the Senate contested in regular elections. Of these, 21 were held by Republicans and 12 by Democrats.
Republicans had not held the majority in the House for 40 years, since the 83rd Congress (elected in 1952). From 1933 to 1995, Republicans had controlled both House and Senate for only four years.
How many years has Nancy Pelosi been Speaker of the House?
80 years (March 26, 1940)
Lester L. Wolff (D-NY; born 1919), is the oldest living sitting or former member of the House of Representatives.
A political party is made up of individuals who organize to win elections, operate government, and influence public policy. The Democratic and Republican parties are currently the primary parties in Congress. Learn more about political party divisions in the U.S. Senate.
An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates on issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship; a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election
Since its inception in 1789, all representatives have been directly elected. The number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435. In addition, there are currently six non-voting members, bringing the total membership of the US House of Representatives to 441 or fewer with vacancies.
| 117th United States Congress |
|---|
| Senate Majority | Republican (until January 20, 2021) Democratic (from January 20, 2021) |
| Senate President | Mike Pence (R) (until January 20, 2021) Kamala Harris (D) (from January 20, 2021) |
| House Majority | Democratic |
| House Speaker | Nancy Pelosi (D) |
The oldest sitting senator is Dianne Feinstein (born 1933).
The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict, and the penalty for an impeached official upon conviction is removal from office.
Senators elected to regular terms in 2008 were in the last two years of those terms during this Congress. The Senate had a Democratic majority, while the House had a Republican majority. This was the last time Democrats held control of the Senate until the 117th Congress in 2021.
The Constitution prescribes that the Senate be composed of two senators from each State (therefore, the Senate currently has 100 Members) and that a senator must be at least thirty years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and, when elected, be a resident of the State from which he or she
Who is the current leader of the Senate?
Mitch McConnell
Chuck Schumer
The current leaders are Senators Chuck Schumer (D) from New York and Mitch McConnell (R) from Kentucky. The current Assistant Leaders, or Whips, are Senators Dick Durbin (D) from Illinois and John Thune (R) from South Dakota.
Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to impeach a government official, in effect serving as prosecutor. The Senate has the sole power to conduct impeachment trials, essentially serving as jury and judge. Since 1789 the Senate has tried 19 federal officials, including two presidents.
The practice has been to choose the leader for a two-year term at the beginning of each Congress.
The Senate Republican and Democratic floor leaders are elected by the members of their party in the Senate at the beginning of each Congress. Depending on which party is in power, one serves as majority leader and the other as minority leader. The majority leader has also come to speak for the Senate as an institution.
A Senate term is six years long, so senators may choose to run for reelection every six years unless they are appointed or elected in a special election to serve the remainder of a term.
