G’bye, Harry Hello, Chuck
WASHINGTON — Harry Reid is out, and it looks like Chuck Schumer will be in.
Hours after Reid said he would step down as Senate majority leader, Schumer said he would like the job — and he apparently has the backing of enough colleagues to make it happen.
“I am honored and humbled to have the support of so many of my colleagues and look forward to our Senate Democratic Caucus continuing to fight for the middle class,” Schumer said in a statement.
“I think Schumer should be able to succeed me,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told the Washington Post Friday, after announcing he will not seek reelection in 2016.
Reid’s backing positioned Schumer to quickly consolidate support among Democratic colleagues. Schumer looks set to move without opposition into what would be the highest-ranking congressional job ever held by a Jewish lawmaker.
With Hillary Clinton expected to cruise to the Democratic nomination for President, Clinton and Schumer, who served together as New York’s senators for eight years, could place New Yorkers in two of D.C.’s most powerful posts in 2017.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, Schumer’s longtime Capitol Hill roommate and leading potential rival to succeed Reid, said Friday that he supports Schumer for the job, and will not challenge him.
Fellow New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was quick to endorse Schumer for the job.
Earlier Friday, Schumer called Reid “one of the best human beings I’ve ever met.”
“He has left a major mark on this body, this country, and on so many who have met him, gotten to know him and love him,” Schumer said.
Reid, 75, plans to remain minority leader while serving out his term. That means Schumer won’t succeed him in the post until after the 2016 elections. Democrats hope by then to regain the Senate majority they lost last year. With 24 of 34 seats up for grabs next year held by Republicans, including several in states likely to lean Democratic in the presidential race, Democrats have fair odds of picking up the four or five seats needed to return to power.