Sen. Chuck Schumer always wears his Brooklyn pride on his sleeve.
The veteran lawmaker — born and raised in the highly diverse New York City borough — graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School before serving in the New York State Assembly and then winning his first US House of Representatives election in 1980 at age 29.
After serving in the House for 18 years, he rose to the Senate in 1999 and continues to represent New York state's roughly 20.2 million people.
In his years in the Senate, he has chaired the Rules Committee and led the party's campaign arm to elect and re-elect Democratic senators. He also served as chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus before succeeding Harry Reid of Nevada in 2017 as leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
From 2017 to 2021, Schumer pushed for Democratic Party priorities during the administration of then-President Donald Trump while in the minority, before two January 2021 Senate runoff elections in Georgia catapulted him into the position of majority leader right before now-President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Since then, it has been a quite a ride for the Brooklynite. He was critical in passage of the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the Inflation Reduction Act, in addition to moving through dozens of judicial nominees — including the successful confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court — all in an evenly-split Senate.
And last November, Democrats flipped the open US Senate seat in Pennsylvania being vacated by GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, securing a 51-49 majority headed into the new Congress.
As he surpasses 42 years on Capitol Hill, Schumer is poised to exert even greater influence not just within the Democratic Party but across the country.