Harry Reid was chosen to remain as the top Democrat in the Senate on Thursday, but only after members of the party spent hours criticizing him and the direction the party is headed.
Republicans seized control of the Senate in last week's midterm elections, and the GOP also padded its advantage in the House chamber. Reid served as the Senate Majority Leader starting in 2007 and was the Senate Minority Leader for two years before that.
On Thursday, he was voted to resume duties as Senate Minority Leader. Republicans
chose Mitch McConnell to be the new Senate Majority Leader the same day.
According to
The New York Times, 28 Senate Democrats vocalized their concerns about the state of the party under Reid's guidance during a four-hour meeting before the vote.
The vote to keep Reid as the top Senate Democrat was not unanimous, reports The Times.
"When you have an election like this, common sense says we need to change things," Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who did not vote for Reid, told The Times. "The voice was very loud and unmistakable. To me that means changing leadership, and it was just that simple."
McCaskill said Wednesday she spoke to Reid and told him
she would not support him for Senate Minority Leader.
Added North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who also did not vote for Reid: "This was a change election. I think that we needed to demonstrate that we heard the American public."
Democrats have been pointing fingers since last Tuesday's results became clear, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said this week the Republican performance on Nov. 4 was not a "wave."
"I do not believe what happened the other night is a wave,"
Pelosi said.
"There was no wave of approval for the Republicans. I wish them congratulations, they won the election, but there was no wave of approval for anybody. There was an ebbing, an ebb tide, for us."
Results from a Gallup poll
released this week showed the American public views Republicans more favorably than Democrats for the first time in three years.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told The Times his party is "dysfunctional."
"What was really brought up was the frustration that the whole body was dysfunctional," Tester said. "We've got to figure out a way to make it functional again to work for the American people. I think we take as much blame as the Republicans do."
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