Chuck Schumer, too, spent 40 years in the wilderness. But unlike Moses, he made it to the promised land.

Barely. After his party failed to recapture the Senate in 2016 and 2018, Schumer’s lifelong dream of becoming top man in Congress’s upper chamber appeared to be dashed a third time when Republicans emerged from Election Day 2020 with 50 seats. Win either of two January runoffs in Georgia, and they’d keep the majority. Then, fortune smiled upon New York’s senior senator. In an upset, Democratic candidates won both Georgia seats. Democrats would also have 50 seats in the new Senate. Combined with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote, that would give them the majority. At long last, Charles Ellis Schumer would realize his greatest ambition. He would do so 40 years after he entered Congress, the longest service of any member of Congress before claiming the Senate’s highest position.