Born:
November 23, 1950
Brooklyn, New York
Died:
Spouse:
Iris Weinshall
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is an American politician. He is currently the senior Senator from the state of New York, serving since 1999. A Democrat, in 2005 he became chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Through this committee Senator Schumer impeded Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett from running for the US Senate for the state of Ohio by telling Hackett's top fundraisers to stop sending him money. "The original promise to me from Schumer was that I would have no financial concerns. It went from that to Senator Schumer actually working against my ability to raise money," Hackett said.
Schumer was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, where he still lives today. He attended public schools in Brooklyn, scoring a 1600 on the SAT, and graduating as the valedictorian from James Madison High School in 1967.
He continued his education at Harvard College, where he became interested in politics and campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in 1968. After graduating he went to Harvard Law School. He graduated from there in 1974.
Schumer passed the New York State Bar Exam in early 1975, but never practiced law. Instead he would enter elective politics.
Soon after graduating from Harvard Law, he ran for and was elected to the New York State Assembly, becoming at age 23 the youngest member of the New York legislature since Theodore Roosevelt. He served three terms. In the decades since, he has never lost an election, and has never held any job outside of elected office.
In 1980, 16th District Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman won the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat of Republican Jacob Javits. Schumer ran for Holtzman's vacated seat and won.
