Meet the Democratic senators poised to lead the committees

A look at the likely committee chairs:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) — Stabenow, 70, the senior senator from Michigan and member of the Senate leadership, served as chair of the committee from 2011 to 2015. She was most recently the ranking Democrat on the committee, which is responsible for agriculture policy, school nutrition and the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) — Leahy, 80, the longest-serving active senator, has been a member of the committee for more than four decades and was most recently its top Democrat. The committee is responsible for legislation that allocates federal funding to government agencies, departments and organizations. He again became the Senate’s president pro tempore.

Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.) — Reed has most recently been the ranking Democrat on the committee, previously opposite Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and then Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.). Reed is a former Army Ranger and is an alumnus of the U.S. Military Academy and Harvard University. The committee has legislative jurisdiction over the nation’s military and defense.

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio) — Brown, an outspoken Wall Street critic, was part of the opposition to legislation rolling back some Dodd-Frank regulations, the massive reform package to prevent another financial crisis like the one in 2008. He was most recently the top Democrat on the committee, which is responsible for legislation related to banking and financial institutions, as well as government contracts and urban mass transit.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) — Sanders,an independent Senator who caucuses with the Democrats, has had a prominent perch as the ranking member on the committee, which is responsible for drafting federal budget plans, a key post for challenging Republican funding priorities. He took over the ranking member post in 2015. The 79-year-old two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination is a self-proclaimed democratic socialist.

Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) — Wyden, who has previously chaired the committee that handles matters related to taxation and revenue, is expected to take the gavel again. He was most recently the commitee’s ranking Democrat. There is broad overlap between Wyden and Biden’s tax proposals, and the senior senator from Oregon, who won his fourth full-term in 2016, has said the pair are on the “same page on taxes.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.) — Menendez is set to retake the committee gavel after leading the panel from 2013 to 2015. He resumed his position as ranking member of the committee in 2018 after federal prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss corruption charges against the Democrat from New Jersey. Menendez was reelected to a third term in 2018. The committee, which evaluates nominees to the State Department, holds jurisdiction over all diplomatic nominations.

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) — Murray is expected to take the helm of the chamber’s key health-care committee after another election cycle in which health care was a key issue for voters who were grappling with an ongoing pandemic. She has been a member of the committee for more than two decades and most recently was the ranking Democrat on the panel. Murray, 70, has been a member of Senate Democratic leadership since 2007.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) — Peters won reelection to his second Senate term. He most recently served as the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s primary oversight committee, which oversees the federal workforce and the U.S. Postal Service, among other responsibilities.

Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) — Schatz was most recently the fourth-ranking Democrat on the committee and could take the helm after the ranking Democrat, Sen. Tom Udall (N.M.), retired and as the next two senators on the Democratic seniority list, Cantwell and Jon Tester (Mont.), are set to lead other panels. Schatz is the senior senator from Hawaii, a seat he has held since 2012. The committee’s jurisdiction includes matters related to American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native people.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) is next in line to lead the committee after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) announced in November that she would not seek the top Democratic spot on the panel following criticism of her handling of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings. Durbin, who is also the Senate Democratic whip, has served for more than two decades on the Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with consideration of judicial nominations, including nominations to the Supreme Court, and is also responsible for oversight of the Justice Department and its agencies.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) — Klobuchar is set to take the gavel of the committee that oversees the rules and operations of the Senate. The senior senator from Minnesota ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and has served as the ranking Democrat on the committee since 2017. Klobuchar is also the chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee. She recently said on CNN that the role will “give me the ability to work on issues related to elections where I was blocked before, antitrust, things that I really care a lot about.”

Sen. Christopher A. Coons (Del.) — Coons, who was reelected to his second full Senate term in November, joined the ethics panel in 2015 and became its top Democrat in 2017. The panel is tasked with investigating alleged violations of Senate rules. The Democrat from Delaware was elected to his first full term in the Senate in 2014 after first being elected in a 2010 special election.

Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.) — Warner won reelection to a third term in the Senate in November and would take the helm of a committee on which he has been the top Democrat since 2017. The panel, which oversees matters related to the nation’s intelligence community, has been at the center of several high-profile issues, including the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Warner previously served as governor of Virginia.