Both party conferences in the Senate appoint campaign committees to help elect members of their party to the Senate by recruiting candidates, raising and distributing funds, and assisting with communications and strategy.
The senatorial campaign committees have their origins in the 19th century. In the 1860s, some Republican senators joined with their colleagues in the House of Representatives to form a joint campaign committee to support President Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 reelection campaign. In 1866 the Republican campaign committee turned its attention to House and Senate elections, especially races in the southern states undergoing Reconstruction. That year, Democratic members of the House and Senate also established a congressional campaign committee to build national support for “democratic and conservative elements” of Congress. In the years that followed, the Senate’s two party conferences appointed senators to serve with members of the House on these congressional campaign committees.
By 1916 Democrats and Republicans in the Senate had established their own campaign committees, separate from the House, to focus exclusively on Senate campaigns. These committees raised funds for candidates, provided speakers for campaign events, and created and distributed campaign materials. Party leadership appointed the campaign committee chairs, usually at the beginning of each Congress, and established the practice of choosing senators who were not up for reelection, a practice that continues today. In 1955 the Republican Conference began electing their campaign committee chair. The Democratic campaign committee chair continues to be appointed by the party leader.