Chuck Schumer | |
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Senate Majority Leader | |
Assumed office January 20, 2021 | |
Whip | Dick Durbin |
Preceded by | Mitch McConnell |
Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus | |
Assumed office January 3, 2017 | |
Vice Chair | Mark Warner Elizabeth Warren |
Preceded by | Harry Reid |
United States Senator from New York | |
Assumed office January 3, 1999 Serving with Kirsten Gillibrand | |
Preceded by | Al D'Amato |
Senate Minority Leader | |
In office January 3, 2017 – January 20, 2021 | |
Whip | Dick Durbin |
Preceded by | Harry Reid |
Succeeded by | Mitch McConnell |
Chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee | |
In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2017 | |
Leader | Harry Reid |
Preceded by | Byron Dorgan |
Succeeded by | Debbie Stabenow |
Chair of the Senate Rules Committee | |
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015 | |
Preceded by | Dianne Feinstein |
Succeeded by | Roy Blunt |
Vice Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus | |
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2017 | |
Leader | Harry Reid |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | |
Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee | |
In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2009 | |
Leader | Harry Reid |
Preceded by | Jon Corzine |
Succeeded by | Robert Menendez |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York | |
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1999 | |
Preceded by | Elizabeth Holtzman |
Succeeded by | Anthony Weiner |
Constituency |
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Member of the New York State Assembly from the 45th district | |
In office January 1, 1975 – December 31, 1980 | |
Preceded by | Stephen Solarz |
Succeeded by | Daniel L. Feldman |
Personal details | |
Born | Charles Ellis Schumer November 23, 1950 New York City, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Amy Schumer (second cousin once removed) |
Education | Harvard University (BA, JD) |
Signature | |
Website | Senate website |
This article is part of a series on |
Modern liberalism in the United States |
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Charles Ellis Schumer (/ˈʃuːmər/ SHOO-mər; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since 2021[1] and as a United States senator from New York since 1999. A member of the Democratic Party, he has led the Senate Democratic Caucus since 2017 and was Senate Minority Leader from 2017 to 2021. He became New York's senior senator in 2001, on the retirement of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Elected to a fifth Senate term in 2022, Schumer surpassed Moynihan and Jacob K. Javits as the longest-serving U.S. senator from New York. He is the dean of New York's congressional delegation.
A native of Brooklyn and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Schumer was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly from 1975 to 1980. He served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999, first representing New York's 16th congressional district before being redistricted to the 10th congressional district in 1983 and 9th congressional district 10 years later. In 1998, Schumer was elected to the Senate, defeating three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato. He was reelected in 2004 with 71% of the vote, in 2010 with 66% of the vote, in 2016 with 70% of the vote, and in 2022 with 56% of the vote.
Schumer chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2009, overseeing 14 Democratic gains in the Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections. He was the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Dick Durbin. He served as Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate from 2007 to 2017[2] and chaired the Senate Democratic Policy Committee from 2011 to 2017.[3] Schumer won his fourth term in the Senate in 2016 and was then unanimously elected Democratic leader to succeed Reid, who was retiring.[4][5]
In January 2021, Schumer became Senate Majority Leader, becoming the first Jewish Senate majority leader. As majority leader, Schumer shepherded through the Senate some of the Biden administration's major legislative initiatives, including the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Respect for Marriage Act. Also under his leadership, the Senate confirmed the most federal judges during the first two years of any presidency since John F. Kennedy's, and the most diverse slate of federal judicial nominations in American history,[6] including Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to serve on the Supreme Court.