Charles Ellis Schumer (; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as the Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of t...
Charles Ellis Schumer (; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as the Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is the senior United States senator from New York, a seat to which he was first elected in 1998. He is the current 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. Schumer served 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 ten years later. In 1998, Schumer was elected as a U.S. Senator after defeating three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato. He was subsequently reelected in 2004 with 71 percent of the vote, in 2010 with 66 percent of the vote, and in 2016 with 70 percent of the vote.
Schumer was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2009, during which time he oversaw 14 Democratic gains in the Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections. He was the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, behind Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Whip Dick Durbin. He served as Vice Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate from 2007 to 2017 and was chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee from 2011 to 2017. Schumer won his fourth term in the Senate in 2016 and was then unanimously elected Democratic leader to succeed Harry Reid, who was retiring. In January 2021, Schumer became Senate Majority Leader, and the first Jewish leader of either chamber of Congress.
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Jeff Flake
Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. A member of...
Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Flake served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.
Born in Snowflake, Arizona, Flake attended Brigham Young University, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations, and later his Master of Arts degree in political science. In the early 1980s, he became a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa, where he learned to speak Afrikaans. After returning to the United States, Flake served as Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute, before being elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st congressional district in 2001. He served as the representative for the 1st district until renumbering following the 2000 census redefined the district to be Arizona's 6th congressional district, which he then represented until he entered the Senate in 2013.
Flake sought the Republican nomination for the 2012 Senate election after incumbent Jon Kyl announced his retirement. He defeated Democratic candidate and former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona in the general election. Flake was one of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" U.S. senators that pushed an immigration reform bill through the Senate in 2013. He is known as a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, but generally voted in line with Trump's positions. On October 24, 2017, Flake announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018.Throughout his Senate career, Flake suffered from consistently low approval ratings. In April 2013, less than three months after taking office, he had 32% approval and 51% disapproval ratings. By mid-2017, he dropped to 18% approval and 62% disapproval ratings, but recovered slightly near the end of his term, with 30% approval and 51% disapproval ratings as of July 2018.On January 29, 2019, Flake was hired by CBS as a contributor for CBS News. He regularly appears on CBS This Morning and CBS Evening News.
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