In U.S. politics, the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body.

In the federal Congress, the roles differ slightly in the two houses: the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and the Majority Leader of the Senate, respectively. In the House of Representatives, which chooses its own presiding officer, the leader of the majority party is elected the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives is something of a misnomer then, as the title is given to the majority party's second in command. In the United States Senate, its president is ex officio the Vice-President of the United States, and the President pro tempore is a largely ceremonial position, so the majority leader is the actual leader of the majority party.

The role of majority leaders thus differs slightly between the two chambers.

Given the two-party nature of the U.S. system, the majority leader is almost inevitably either a Republican or a Democrat.

Addison Mitchell "Mitch" McConnell, Jr. (born February 20, 1942), a Republican American, is the senior United States Senator from Kentucky and the Minority Leader. He is the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history.

McConnell was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Julia (née Shockley) and Addison Mitchell McConnell.

McConnell was raised in southern Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended the duPont Manual High School, and in 1964 he graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in political science. He was student body president and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. McConnell has maintained strong ties to his alma mater, and "remains a rabid fan of its sports teams." He graduated in 1967 from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association.

McConnell became a member of the 100th Division (Training), U.S. Army Reserve, in Louisville, Kentucky, during his final semester of law school; and he reported for his six months of active service, primarily for training, in July 1967. After induction at Fort Knox, Kentucky, McConnell was released early from his active-duty military service in August 1967. McConnell received a medical discharge for optic neuritis, which is a common manifestation of multiple sclerosis.