Schumer glides to reelection as Senate majority leader
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has once again been elected by his conference to lead Senate Democrats.
Schumer, who has been the party’s leader in the upper chamber for the last six years, taking the reins from Harry Reid in 2016, unanimously won reelection on Thursday in leadership elections largely devoid of drama. The election comes on the heels of a successful midterm cycle in which the party defended its seats and managed to flip one GOP-held seat despite recent historical trends and President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings.
The five-term New York senator managed to rack up a series of legislative victories this year that the party campaigned on in swing states, some with bipartisan support and some passed with a bare majority of votes in the evenly divided Senate. Schumer was able to get bills to President Joe Biden’s desk on priorities such as improving gun safety, tackling climate change, and lowering prescription drug costs, yet the majority leader has been criticized by progressive groups for giving up on more ambitious parts of Democrats’ agenda. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win in Georgia will give Schumer his 51st vote, and some legislative breathing room.
SCHUMER PREPARES TO LEAD DEMOCRATS WITH OUTRIGHT MAJORITY
Under Schumer’s leadership, the Senate has confirmed 84 Biden-nominated judges and 25 appeals court judges, including Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. The Senate has been confirming judges at a faster rate than Donald Trump had before the 2022 election.
The next two years won’t be easy for the Senate majority leader, however. House Republicans will preside over a razor-thin majority of their own, lending outsize influence to the conservative House Freedom Caucus. With Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) looking to appease his right flank, compromise could be difficult to come by should he become House speaker on Jan. 3.
And the electoral math isn’t promising for Senate Democrats in 2024. Of the Senate Democratic incumbents up for reelection in 2024, seven are in states that went for Trump in 2016, 2020, or both. There are no Republican seats up in states won by either Hillary Clinton or Biden.
Following the leadership elections, the Democratic slate includes Schumer as leader, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) as whip, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) as leader of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as chairwoman of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be the chairman of outreach and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) will be vice chair of outreach. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Joe Manchin will be the vice chairs of the Democratic Police and Communications Committee. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) will serve as vice chairs of the conference, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will be the secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) will serve in a newly created deputy conference secretary position.
Schumer eliminated the assistant Democratic leader position after Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) stepped down from the role in order to take on two of the chamber’s most crucial roles: leading the Senate Appropriations Committee and assuming the job of president pro tempore, replacing the retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The position places her in the line of presidential sucession and also comes with a large security detail and office space on the first floor of the Capitol.
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Some Democrats wanted to spread out power more broadly among rank and file members, but an effort to do that failed. Democrats voted by secret ballot last week, rejecting a proposal sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to bar members of Democratic leadership from also chairing powerful committees.
The proposal would have forced Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-MI) to choose between leading those committees or their senior leadership positions.
Under current caucus rules, members of senior leadership are able to hold chairmanships simultaneously. But they are not able to chair more than one committee at a time.