US Democrats re-elect 74-year-old Senate leader

New York Senator Chuck Schumer has been re-elected to lead the caucus for the fifth time

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was unanimously backed by his caucus on Tuesday to continue his role in the next Congress.

It marks the fifth re-election as party leader for Schumer, a 74-year-old New York senator, who has led the Democrats in the upper chamber since 2016. Next year, however, he will head the minority party after Republicans managed to unseat a handful of senators and take a vacant seat, securing a 53-strong majority.

Schumer said he was “honored and humbled” by the trust placed in him by his colleagues to lead them “during this crucial period for our country.” Schumer pledged to work with Republicans whenever possible.

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“As I have long said, our preference is to secure bipartisan solutions wherever possible and look for ways to collaborate with our Republican colleagues to help working families,” he said in a statement posted on Meta’s Threads social media platform.

“However, our Republican colleagues should make no mistake about it, we will always stand up for our values,” he added without elaborating.

The announcement appeared to receive a mixed reaction at best, with numerous Threads users flocking to Schumer’s thread to vent their anger. The discontented users accused the senator of being unable to provide the Democratic caucus with strong enough leadership and urged him to step down before he leads “us over another cliff.”