Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid Will Not Seek Re-Election-Who Is Likely Leadership Replacement?

U.S. Senator Harry Reid has announced his retirement at the end of his term, opening the door to a powerful but moderate Democrat.

Harry Reid, the senior U.S. Senator from Nevada and current Senate Democratic Leader, just announced he will not seek re-election next year. Reid, 75, has served In Congress since 1983, and in the Senate since 1987. In 2007, Reid became the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader after Republicans won the majority last year.

“I want to be able to go out at the top of my game,” Reid told the New York Times. “I don’t want to be a 42-year-old trying to become a designated hitter.”

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, one of the most powerful in the Senate, is the top contender to replace Reid as the Democratic Leader.

Schumer is ranked as a moderate Democrat, but in our opinion is conservative on important issues.

Last November he expressed very public regret about passing Obamacare immediately after President Obama’s election.

“After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus,” Schumer said last year. “But unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them. We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem — health-care reform.”

He also did not support same-sex marriage until 2009, being “the last of New York’s major elected officials to voice support for gay marriage,” and did not support a gay-inclusive framework for immigration reform in 2013. He also voted for DOMA in 1996.

The other contender for Democratic Leader is the far more progressive Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the current Minority Whip.

 

This article has been updated due to an editing error.

 

Image by Center for American Progress Action Fund via Flickr and a CC license