What Is a Whip in Congress? Party Whips Explained

A party whip is a member of party leadership in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both the Majority Whip and the Minority Whip seek to align rank-and-file members of their political party around a shared agenda and way of voting. Specifically, the party whip coordinates with other party leaders to make sure that all of their lawmakers vote the same way on a specific piece of legislation. The name “whip” comes from the fox-hunting term “whipper-in,” the person who corrals foxhounds.

In the U.S. Senate, the party whip is the second-highest position within a party, serving directly below the floor leader. This means that the Republican whip is second-in-command to the Republican leader, and the Democratic whip is second-in-command to the Democratic leader.

The majority party in the Senate has a third leader: the president pro tempore, a position traditionally held by the longest-tenured member of the majority party. The president pro tempore is third in the line of succession to the presidency, following the vice president and the Speaker of the House. Yet in day-to-day business, the president pro tempore almost always defers to the Senate Majority Leader and Senate Majority Whip.

The House Majority Whip and House Minority Whip function similarly to their Senate counterparts, seeking a unified front on every matter from appropriations to healthcare to military policy.

The primary difference between a whip in the House and the Senate is that the House Majority Whip is sometimes the number three position in party leadership, rather than the number two. This is because the majority party leader in the House becomes the Speaker of the House, and the number two member of party leadership becomes the House Majority Leader. This leaves the number three in the caucus to serve as Majority Whip.

On both sides of the U.S. Capitol, a party's chief whip may have several deputy whips to corral specific members of their legislative caucus. For example, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives may need to reach out to moderates in a Democratic caucus known as “Blue Dog Coalition” and progressives known as “Justice Democrats.” The Democratic whip may rely upon different deputy whips to lobby these two groups of legislators to approach key issues from different perspectives.

Get the MasterClass Annual Membership for exclusive access to video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ron Finley, Jane Goodall, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and more.