Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reelected in New York Transcript

Are we in a New York groove?

(00:14)
Well, hello New York. Let’s hear it for the greatest city, in the greatest state, in the greatest nation in the world. Now my dear friends, I am so proud and so honored that the people of New York have given me another term to keep doing what I love, fighting to deliver real results for New York in the US Senate.

(00:49)
Listen to this. In fact, thanks to the voice of the voters, I am the first New Yorker ever to be elected for five terms to the New York Senate. It’s deeply humbling as it is motivating to me, and I vow to you and to all New Yorkers, I will work just as hard to make this new term every bit as impactful as the four that came before it. Because you know why? New York is in my bones. Before I love New York was our state motto, it was my credo.

(01:38)
I love nothing more than visiting every corner of this beautiful state, from the farms in Genesee County to the farmer’s market in Union Square, learning from everyday New Yorkers about their difficulties and their dreams and then going to DC to do something about it. That’s just who I am and I ain’t changing now.

(02:06)
I want to recognize my friends and partners in government tonight. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, my great partner in the Senate, Governor Kathy Hochul, Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, Attorney General Tish James, Controller Tom Denapoli, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Hastie and Mayor Eric Adams and the good many state senators, assembly members and city council members all here to celebrate with us tonight, and God willing will soon be celebrating many more great victories up and down this ticket tonight.

(03:08)
My friends, I love this job. I love my job representing all 20 million New Yorkers, in all our diversity and energy and eccentricity as the first ever, the first ever majority leader from this state. And I take very seriously my responsibility to make this community I love a better place. That’s why, remember how they always used to say New York gave more money to Washington than we got back? Well, that’s why I’m proud to say that under my leadership, for the first time in memory, our state got more money back from the federal government than we sent down.

(03:52)
In the Senate, we took on the special interests time and time again and we won. We beat the NRA and passed the first gun safety legislation in three decades. We beat big oil and passed the most consequential climate change bill in history. We beat big pharma and capped prescription drug costs for seniors on fixed incomes. We beat the big tax dodging corporations by instituting a minimum tax so they’ll finally pay their fair share. And we beat the far right and the Federalist Society and confirmed, shh, listen to this, confirm more than 80 highly qualified progressive judges to lifetime appointments on the bench. Three quarters of those nominees were women. Two thirds were people of color, including the great Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman and first public defender to sit on the court.

(05:03)
Now we did this, by the way, with the help of zero Republicans. And one more thing we did, we succeeded in canceling a huge chunk of student debt that weighed down on millions of Americans for far too long. Now I like to do things on a bipartisan basis whenever I can, especially if it means achieving good things for New Yorkers versus getting nothing at all. Neither of my parents, neither of my parents had a political bone in their body. My dad was an exterminator focused on paying the bills. My mom, Selma, was a home worker whose priority was teaching me and my brother good values.

(05:53)
My dad passed away in November. We just had the unveiling of his grave site. But today, his spirit still walks alongside me. My dad taught me the most important thing you can do is to do what you think is right and persist and persist and persist and never ever give up in the face of a challenge. Well, there’s no greater challenge these days than trying to get the Republican party to do the right thing, but that didn’t stop us in the last two years.We passed a whole lot, a bipartisan microchip bill, a bipartisan infrastructure bill, healthcare to our vets harmed by toxic burn pits. And we’re going to get even more done in the next days.

(06:48)
So here’s what we want to get done in the next Senate. We want to protect a woman’s right to choose. We want to protect the right to marry those who you love by passing the Marriage Equality Act. We want to fight to protect our democracy by securing the right to vote. We want to strengthen our unions and expand the rights of workers to organize for better pay. We’re going to fight for the working class, for immigrants and Dreamers, for everyday people struggling every single day to stay in the middle class and for those striving to reach it.

(07:32)
So, my friends, I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I’ve lived in the same apartment for over 35 years with my amazing wife, Iris. I raised my two daughters there, and now my grandkids are growing up in Brooklyn. New York is what I live and breathe, and I will never stop fighting for all of you. We face serious challenges, not the least of which is a Republican party tipping to authoritarianism. But as my father taught me, we must keep fighting for what is right.

(08:20)
So, ladies and gentlemen, I promise to all of you here tonight and all 20 million New Yorkers whom it’s my honor to represent, I will keep fighting, I will keep this fight up for as long as it takes to win. Onward to victory, Democrats.