WASHINGTON — In closed-door elections held Tuesday, U.S. Senate Democrats elected caucus leaders, moving Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to the third position and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey to the fourth.
Klobuchar will take over as chair of the powerful Steering and Policy Committee, succeeding retiring Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Klobuchar stated, “I think you have to stand your ground, but you also need to find common ground and look for solutions.”
Booker became a member of the leadership team when he was appointed chair of the Strategic Communications Committee.
Booker stated, “I am excited to serve not only this caucus but also the larger mission of advancing our country and an agenda that is really focused on Americans.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was re-elected to the position of No. 2 Democrat and whip of the party.
According to a Senate Democratic leadership source, Chuck Schumer of New York was unanimously voted as the Democratic leader. Following the retirement of the late Senator Harry Reid of Nevada in 2017, Schumer became the Democratic leader.
In a statement following the elections, Schumer stated, “Our caucus has led the way in passing historic legislation that has improved the lives of millions of Americans and we remain laser focused on addressing the most pressing challenges facing our country.”
Our caucus will continue to fight for the interests of America’s working class in the upcoming Congress, but we still have a lot of work to do as a nation and in the Senate. He went on to say that Senate Democrats are prepared to work for you, the American people.
Shift in control
Last month, Republicans gained four seats in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, while Democrats lost their slender Senate control. This led to the party leadership elections. 53-47 will be the Republican majority.
According to Schumer, Democrats will strive for bipartisan cooperation even if they lose control of the upper chamber when the new Congress meets in January.
Our preference, as I have stated for a long time, is to find ways to work with our Republican colleagues to support working families and, if feasible, get bipartisan solutions, Schumer added. But don’t let our Republican colleagues misunderstand: we will always defend our principles.
We defied gravity
Klobuchar stated that she will miss her Senate colleagues, including Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who were both defeated in their reelection campaigns.
She did, however, attribute Schumer’s efforts to the fact that Democrats managed to win difficult contests in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
“And when you look at this election, in many ways, we defied gravity,” Klobuchar said, pausing deliberately before continuing.
She then asked reporters what she was referring about while looking around the room, until one complained: Wicked.
With pride, Klobuchar remarked, “That’s right, we defied gravity,” alluding to a song from the recently released film Wicked.
One of the reasons I’m so thrilled to be working with Cory (Booker) on this is that’s what we’re going to keep doing in terms of reaching out to these individuals in our country, to the voters who may not have heard us as well as they should have,” Klobuchar stated.
Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were chosen to serve as co-vice chairs of the conference, among other leadership roles.
Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was chosen to serve as Outreach’s vice chair, and Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin was chosen to serve as secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference. Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, is the chair of Outreach.
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