About Parties and Leadership | Party Whips

Both party conferences in the Senate elect whips. The term "whip" comes from a fox-hunting expression—"whipper-in"—referring to the member of the hunting team responsible for keeping the dogs from straying from the team during a chase. Traditionally serving as assistant leaders, whips are mainly responsible for counting heads and rounding up party members for votes and quorum calls, and they occasionally stand in for the majority or minority leaders in their absence.

Established early in the 20th century, the whip position has undergone changes within both party conferences. Democrat James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois became the first party whip when he was elected to the position in 1913. Two years later the Republicans elected James W. Wadsworth to serve as both party secretary and whip. Soon after, however, the conference elected Charles Curtis as whip while Wadsworth remained as secretary. In 1921 the Republicans changed the title to “vice chairman and whip,” but in 1924 they separated the two positions, allowing the conference to elect the vice chairman (sometimes styled the “vice chairman and assistant floor leader”) and giving the party floor leader the authority to appoint the whip.

In 1935, with only 25 members, the Republican Conference chose not to employ a whip or a vice chair/assistant leader. When the Republicans brought back the whip position in 1944, they did away with the separate position of assistant floor leader. In 1970 Republicans began referring to their whips as assistant leaders, but in 2003 they again reverted to the whip title. Democrats, meanwhile, used the title whip until 2003, when they began calling the position assistant leader. They reverted back to the title of whip in 2013. In 2017 Democrats created a new position of assistant leader, which is separate from and ranks directly below the position of whip.