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Charles Ellis Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from New York, a seat to which he was first elected in 1998. A member of the Democratic Party, he has also served as the Senate minority leader since 2017. He first defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato before being 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. He is the current dean of New York's congressional delegation.
Before his election to the Senate, Schumer served in the 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. A native of Brooklyn and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly from 1975 to 1980.
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 was elected Vice Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate in 2006. In November 2010, he was also chosen to hold the additional role of chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Schumer won his fourth term in the Senate in 2016 and was then unanimously elected Minority Leader to succeed Harry Reid, who was retiring.
