From left, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., talk to reporters after their effort to proceed on the “Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act,” was thwarted, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 16, 2014. Sen. Murray and Democrats sponsored the election-year bill to reverse last month’s Supreme Court ruling that closely held businesses with religious objections could deny coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care law. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014 | 12:40 p.m.
He's only Senate majority leader for two more months. On Thursday, Sen. Harry Reid will know if his Democratic colleagues will keep him as minority leader when the new Congress starts in January.
Reid must hand over control of the chamber he's run since 2007 to Republicans after Democrats lost control of the U.S. Senate in a disastrous election for the party.
On Thursday morning, Senate Democrats will gather in the historic Old Senate Chamber to vote by secret ballot for their leadership team for 2015. Reid is expected to win his colleagues' votes for the party's top position, Senate minority leader.
But in politics, never say never. It's possible there could be opposition to Reid. Several endangered Senate Democrats on the campaign trail refused to explicitly support Reid as their leader in 2015.
Reid's team said those senators were just playing politics, saying what they needed to get re-elected. (All but one lost or is expected to lose their election.)
In the election's aftermath, Reid has largely escaped blame from his Democratic colleagues, who instead have pointed fingers at President Barack Obama. Reid's chief of staff, David Krone, criticized the president in an interview two days before the election, in response to White House criticism.
Senate watchers and Reid advisers say such a coup is unlikely, since many Senate Democrats are fiercely loyal to Reid.
Although he lacks national name recognition, Reid is unpopular among conservative, engaged voters, in part because of his strategy to prevent Democrats from taking politically difficult votes this session. This past year, Reid used his power as majority leader to prevent many Republican and Democratic amendments from being attached to bills. Republicans blamed Reid for holding up the Senate. Reid blamed Republicans for refusing to work with him.
Whatever happens could affect Reid's re-election campaign in 2016, when he's expected to run for a sixth, six-year term.
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