This week, his campaign travels included a stop in upstate New York, where Democrats are hoping to retain the House seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand, who replaced Hillary Clinton in the Senate. His political action committee, which funneled more than $2.6 million from lobbyists, special-interest groups and individual donors to help elect Democratic candidates to the House in the last election, is the largest "leadership" PAC in either house of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The longest-serving congressman in Maryland history, Hoyer is firmly established as the No. 2 leader in the House, a job he spent a quarter-century preparing for. His rivalry with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has settled into a manageable groove.
Pelosi, who once worked beside him as a twentysomething Senate intern, has the position that Hoyer sought. The Baltimore-born Pelosi is a year younger and shows no sign of giving up her post as the first female speaker.
Those who know Hoyer say he has accommodated himself to the situation and is realistic about the possibility that he will never get the job.
Hoyer and Pelosi - he alternates, in conversation with a reporter, between calling her Nancy and the speaker - will never love each other, House insiders say. Capitol reporters, aware of that, never tire of looking for ways to drive a wedge between them.
But more than two years into their current relationship, which began after Hoyer defeated Pelosi's candidate for his job, they are working well together in managing the House.
Pelosi has stronger ties to the party's dominant left wing. Hoyer is the go-to member of the leadership for the Blue Dog conservatives, who could act to block Obama's agenda if the price tag gets too high.
"They get along pretty well, and they get things done," said Steve Elmendorf, a lobbyist who was a top adviser to Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the last Democratic majority leader before Hoyer. "The test of any leadership team is, are you going to accomplish the president's agenda within the time frame in which you are asked to do it?"
On the stimulus package, they succeeded.
Obama's popularity with voters has left Republicans unwilling to make him a personal target of their political attacks.
"There aren't Republicans who want to go after a guy who's got an 80 percent approval rating, African-American, wonderful personality, super smile, all that stuff," Hoyer said.
