Chuck Schumer Chosen First Jewish U.S. Senate Minority Leader

Chuck Schumer will lead the Democrat party in Senate during Donald Trump’s presidency after being elected on Wednesday as minority leader.

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The Brooklyn native was leading by an average of 39 points ahead of his Republican opponent Wendy Long.

Schumer was picked by outgoing Senator Harry Reid to succeed him after announcing his retirement in May. He was also endorsed by Senate minority whip Dick Durbin.

Joining Schumer’s leadership are Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Hillary Clinton’s Democratic opponent during primaries, Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and conservative Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also maintained her top position.

Along with Sanders, Schumer supports the candidacy of Muslim-American  Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota for the chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Although Schumer was expecting to work under Clinton, now he is looking to broaden Democratic leadership by attempting to improve the party’s relationship with working-class voters that supported Donald Trump’s bid for presidency.

Lawrence O’Donnell, Liberal commentator on MSNBC's ‘The Last Word’, spoke on Monday of the relevance of having this Jewish leader in the House.

“That no one has seemed to notice that we are about to elect the first Jewish leader of the Senate is proof of how much ground has been won in the centuries of the American war against anti-Semitism,” O’Donnell said in a segment contrasting Schumer’s upbringing to that of fellow New Yorker Donald Trump.

In speaking about the Schumer and Trump families, O’Donnell explained that Trump’s father, Fred, was once arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally. Schumer’s Jewish family would have been a target of the KKK while Chuck was growing up in Brooklyn, O’Donnell noted.

“The once unimaginable is now unremarkable. That’s what progress feels like. That’s what the 21st century is supposed to feel like,” O’Donnell added.

Beloved New York Senator

Charles “Chuck” Ellis Schumer  is a Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate. He was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly (1975-1980). In 1980, just 29 years old, Schumer ran and won for the seat in the 9th Congressional District of New York and maintained that position for eighteen years. In 1998 he was elected to the New York Senate, and became senior Senator two years later. He was re-elected for a third term in 2010, and expanded his role in Senate as Chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Center.

He has built his reputation as a protector of the middle-class. Since first elected to the N.Y. Senate, he has visited all 62 counties yearly.

In 2016, he was re-elected as New York Senator.