Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cruised to an easy victory over Republican challenger Joe Pinion Tuesday, winning a fifth consecutive six-year term that will allow him to pass Daniel Patrick Moynihan as the Empire State’s longest serving US senator.
With 28% of precincts reporting, Schumer was leading Pinion by a two-to-one margin, or about 700,000 raw votes.
At his victory party, a triumphant Schumer danced on stage beside his wife as he celebrated his historic win.
“It is deeply humbling as it is motivating to me,” the lawmaker told supporters Tuesday night, vowing that his fifth term will be “every bit as impactful as the four that came before it.”
“Because you know why? New York is in my bones.”
The Brooklyn Democrat was first elected to the Senate in 1998 and became majority leader after the 2020 elections.
Moynihan served four terms in the chamber after first being elected in 1976. He retired in 2000 and died three years later.
Coincidentally, Moynihan announced his retirement in November of 1998, days after then-Congressman Schumer won his first Senate election over Republican Alfonse D’Amato.
Whether Schumer will continue as majority leader remained unclear Tuesday as several contests were still unresolved, and it was too early to determine which party would hold a majority in the Senate.
Democrats held the nominal majority in the 50-50 Senate for the past two years due to the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris to break tie votes.
Just last month, Schumer was caught on a hot mic confiding to President Biden that Democrats were “in danger” of losing at least one Senate seat and expressed concern about the tight race in Georgia between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
In their only debate last month, Pinion blamed Schumer for fomenting political violence and being part of a Democratic regime that had caused inflation and immigration to spiral out of control.
“You bring home the bacon, sure – but many people’s bellies are empty,” Pinion said at the debate at Union College in Schenectady.
Schumer highlighted his efforts to shepherd the president’s domestic agenda through the Senate, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
“I have been more productive as a senator and as majority leader than just about anybody else,” he said.