Who Leads Political Parties?

Parties in the US Have Many Leaders

Apr 20, 2009

One can find party leaders in the party organizations at the federal and state level, Congress, and the White House.

Recently there was a national debate about whether Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party. However, Limbaugh is a radio host and does not serve as a party leader in any official capacity. So, who are the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties? There is not a single person one could point to as the leader of a political party. Instead, there are many party leaders.

What are Political Party Organizations?

Republicans and Democrats each have party organizations with leaders, or chairmen, that run them. The Republican’s party organization is called the Republican National Committee (RNC), whose current chair is Michael Steele. The Democrat’s party organization is called the Democratic National Committee (DNC), whose current chair is Tim Kaine. Also, each of the 50 states have party organizations for both parties, and these party organizations will have at least one, sometimes two, chairs. This would add at least an additional 100 party leaders to our list. These party organizations are not part of the government. Though highly regulated by the government, they are private organizations that are independent of the government.

In addition to the RNC and DNC, there are party leaders in Congress. The Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) leads the House, but can also be considered a leader of her party (Democrat). Also, the members of each party in each house of Congress elect a leader. Therefore, there is a House Majority Party Leader (Steny Hoyer), House Minority Party Leader (John Boehner), Senate Majority Party Leader (Harry Reid), and Senate Minority Party Leader (Mitch McConnell).

In addition to these leaders, the parties in each house elect members to run their campaign organizations. So, in the House, there is a chair for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (Chris Van Hollen) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (Pete Sessions), and in the Senate, there is a chair for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (Robert Menendez) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (John Cornyn).

Lastly, among their many official duties, the president is looked to as a leader within his party. The president can usually depend upon his party to build support for his ideas and help him get legislation passed. One way that the president exercises some influence over his party is that, by tradition, a sitting president will be allowed to choose the chair of their party organization.

There is no single leader of a political party. Rather, the responsibility of leading a political party is shared by many.

The copyright of the article Who Leads Political Parties? in US Parties is owned by Napp Nazworth. Permission to republish Who Leads Political Parties? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.