Nine things you may not know about Chuck Schumer

Sen. Schumer has declared himself the next majority leader. So. What else do you know about him?

After yesterday’s two Senate run-off elections in Georgia handed wins to Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the party successfully secured their 49th and 50th seats in the nation’s upper chamber. Due to the coming 50-50 party split in the Senate, it will fall to the vice president (who, starting January 20, will be Kamala Harris) to cast any tie-breaking vote. This will give the Dems effective control of the body—and it is why Park Slope resident Chuck Schumer has declared himself the majority leader of the United States Senate, effective Inauguration Day.

Here endeth the civics lesson.

With Brooklyn literally in the house (ok, fine, Senate), Schumer tweeted “Buckle up!” Wednesday morning, hours before a Trump-incited mob descended on the Capitol. Here are nine things you may not know about our next Senate majority leader:

1. Schumer, who graduated from James Madison High School (as did RBG and Bernie Sanders before him) as valedictorian, got a perfect 1600 on his SAT. Aptly, his first (and only civilian) job was working for test prep company Kaplan in its early stages.

2. Schumer visits each of New York’s 62 counties every year, keeping a promise he made when first elected to the Senate in 1998.

(Planetgordon.com, licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

3. He rides bikes!

4. When not on the road or staying in Washington, Schumer lives in Park Slope. His home was the site of a 2017 protest poetically nicknamed the “What the f*ck, Chuck?” rally, which called upon him to oppose Trump’s cabinet picks.

5. Schumer is pro-choice and has sponsored legislation to make the blockading of family planning clinics a federal crime. On guns, he was instrumental in the passage of both the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in September 2004, and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

6. Comedian Amy Schumer is the daughter of Chuck’s cousin, Gordon David Schumer, who owned a baby furniture company. Amy came to cousin Chuck’s defense after Trump accused him of crying “fake tears” over the immigration ban in 2017. (And we’re still angling for our Thanksgiving dinner invite.)

7. He is the sponsor of the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, introduced in May of 2019, which would decriminalize and regulate marijuana at the federal level.

8. When he won election in 1974 to the New York State Assembly at age 23, he became the youngest member of that body since Theodore Roosevelt.

9. He’s never since lost an election.