how are leaders of the two parties in congress chosen
Senate Republican Conference Senate Democratic Caucus
title: Congressional nominating caucus text: Congressional nominating caucus The Congressional nominating caucus is the name for informal meetings in which American congressmen would agree on who to nominate for the Presidency and Vice Presidency from their political party. The system was introduced after George Washington had announced his retirement upon the end of his second term, when the Democratic-Republican Party, and Federalist Party began contesting elections on a partisan basis. Both parties may have held informal caucuses in 1796 to try to decide on their candidates. After the disorganized electoral voting of 1796, both parties held formal caucuses in 1800 that selected their respective presidential title: President of the United States text: electoral votes to Congress. The votes of the electors are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress, held in the first week of January. If a candidate has received an absolute majority of electoral votes for president (currently 270 of 538), that person is declared the winner. Otherwise, the House of Representatives must meet to elect a president using a contingent election procedure in which representatives, voting by state delegation, with each state casting a single vote, choose between the top electoral vote-getters for president. For a candidate to win, he or she must receive the votes of title: United States House of Representatives text: who are sent to trial before the Senate, and in cases wherein no candidate receives a majority of electors for President, the duty falls upon the House to elect one of the top three recipients of electors for that office, with one vote given to each state for that purpose. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is therefore traditionally the leader of the controlling party. The Speaker and other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference, depending on whichever party has more voting members. title: Politics of the United States text: office as an independent. Each state has significant discretion in deciding how candidates are nominated, and thus eligible to appear on the election ballot. Typically, major party candidates are formally chosen in a party primary or convention, whereas minor party and Independents are required to complete a petitioning process. The modern political party system in the United States is a two-party system dominated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These two parties have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and have controlled the United States Congress since 1856. The Democratic Party generally positions itself as left-of-center title: Political party committee text: National Committee, Green National Committee, Libertarian National Committee, and Republican National Committee are the official central organizations for their respective parties. They have the greatest role in presidential election years when they are responsible for planning the nominating convention and also spend heavily in support of their party's nominee (some of this spending is directly coordinated with the nominee's campaign; the rest is in independent expenditures). The two major parties also have two national Hill committees, controlled by their caucus leadership in each house of Congress, which work specifically to elect members of their own party to Congress. The individual