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Read the press release here.

Chuck Schumer Reelected to U.S. Senate

By Shaye Weaver | November 8, 2016 9:03pm
 Sen. Chuck Schumer at the 2012 West Indian-American Day Parade on Monday, Sept. 3, 2012.
Sen. Chuck Schumer at the 2012 West Indian-American Day Parade on Monday, Sept. 3, 2012.
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DNAinfo/Michael Ip

NEW YORK CITY — U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer will return to Washington.

Schumer, a Democrat from Brooklyn garnered roughly 67 percent of votes in his favor, followed by Republican Wendy Long with 26 percent of votes, Libertarian Alex Merced with under 1 percent of the vote, and Green Party candidate Robin Laverne Wilson with roughly 2 percent, Board of Election results show.

This will be his fourth term.

Representing New York in the U.S. Senate since 1998, Schumer will likely take the helm as the Senate Democratic leader once Harry Reid retires at the end of this year, reports say.

In July, Schumer took aim at the dangerous drug known as K2, or synthetic marijuana, which caused a mass overdose in Bedford-Stuyvesant over the summer. He co-sponsored a bill that would ban 22 chemicals used to make the drug.

Schumer also led the charge to make health care permanently available to 9/11 survivors and first responders under the Zadroga Act with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, which was pushed through Congress in December 2015.

Recently, Schumer voiced his support for the Gateway Project to build new underwater tunnels connecting Manhattan and New Jersey, saying the project must move "full-speed ahead" because of the "countless jobs that depend on a safe and functioning gateway tunnel."

Before his stint in the Senate, Schumer, 65, served 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, from 1980 to 1998, and before that was a state assemblyman from 1974 to 1980.