Schumer, McConnell elected top leaders in US Senate

Senate Republicans re-elected Mitch McConnell on Wednesday to be majority leader next year while Democrats picked Chuck Schumer to lead them, setting the chief actors as the chamber prepares to push an agenda that will be dominated by Donald Trump and the GOP.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren walk to the Senate floor after the weekly Democratic caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2015.

“I am going to wake up every single day focused on how Senate Democrats can effectively fight for America’s middle class and those struggling to join it”, Schumer said minutes after his election.

Senate Democrats have elected Chuck Schumer to be their new minority leader when Congress convenes in January.

Republican Senate aides said the party would not risk leadership election “drama” on the heels of a GOP sweep. Sanders, who lost the presidential primary to former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, said his job was to reach out to “grassroots America”.

Schumer is a tireless networker who hangs out most weekday mornings in the Senate gym to talk with colleagues, particularly his Republican friends, to try to cut bipartisan deals. The New York senator is succeeding retiring Sen.

Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, was named to a new “Chair of Outreach” position.

As part of that post-election analysis, Schumer formally added top liberal lawmakers – Sen.

Pelosi, who may face a challenger, agreed this week to delay leadership elections until November 30 after her fellow Democrats called for more time to reassess why they fell short of their goals in the November 8 election.

Republicans are set to hold at least 51 Senate seats in the next Congress, with the Louisiana race still to be decided in a December 10 runoff.

Other notable members of the conference’s leadership team includes U.S. Sen. Both Sanders and Schumer are Jewish.

It “shows we can unite the disparate factions of our party and our country”, Schumer said of the new positions.

Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Elizabeth Warren of MA retained their positions as conference vice chairs. Sen. He will continue as the ranking member of the Budget Committee.

In all, the 48 Democrats elected a team of 10 senators tasked with defining party strategy until the mid-term elections of November 2018. “Where we can work together we will”.

He vaulted past No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of IL and will lead Democrats’ last line of defense against the Trump White House and GOP-controlled House.

Senate Republicans similarly held a leadership election, unanimously ushering in Sen.