From 1777 to 1868, North Carolina had no Lieutenant Governor, and the highest-ranking officer of the Senate was known as the "Speaker".

Presidents pro tempore are elected at the beginning of each biennial session, currently in January of odd-numbered years.

Marc Basnight, however, became arguably the most powerful North Carolina Senate leader in history and one of the state's most influential politicians when he served a record nearly 18 years as president pro tempore.

Upon Republican Jim Gardner's assumption of lieutenant gubernatorial office in 1989, Democrats in the Senate modified the body's rules, transferring the powers to appoint committees and assign bills away from the lieutenant governor and to the president pro tempore.

[1] The president pro tempore is responsible for appointing the members of the Senate's committees at the opening of each legislative session.