List of Jewish political milestones in the United States

The following is a list of Jewish political milestones in the United States.

• First Jewish member of a colonial legislature (South Carolina): Francis Salvador (1775)
• First Jewish soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War: Francis Salvador (1776)
• First governor of Jewish heritage of a U.S. state: David Emanuel (1801)
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress/U.S. House of Representatives: Lewis Charles Levin (1845)
• First Jewish heritage member of the United States Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845)
• First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Iowa City, Iowa): Moses Bloom (1873)
  • Two years later, Bailey Gatzert became a mayor of Seattle (1875)
• First elected Jewish governor of a U.S. state: Washington Bartlett (California) (1887)
• First Jewish Cabinet member/Secretary of Commerce and Labor: Oscar Straus (1906)
  • Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate cabinet as Secretary of State and War
• First Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Louis Brandeis (1916)
  • President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Judah P. Benjamin to the Supreme Court in 1853, but Benjamin declined.
• First Jewish female member of the U.S. Congress/U.S. House of Representatives: Florence Prag Kahn (1925)
• First person of Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States on a major party ticket: Barry Goldwater (1964) (Goldwater's father was Jewish; Goldwater was raised Episcopalian)
• First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Toni Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972)
• First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973)
• First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (San Francisco): Dianne Feinstein (1977)
• First Jewish female governor: Madeleine M. Kunin (1985)
• First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress/U.S. House of Representatives: Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989)
• First senate election in which both major party candidates were Jewish. (1990 Minnesota U.S. Senate Election) (1990)
• First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress/U.S. House of Representatives: Bernie Sanders (1991)
• First Jewish female members of the United States Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993)
• First Jewish female Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993)
• First Jewish nominee for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket, and first Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote excluding faithless electors: Joe Lieberman (2000)
• First Jewish elected official representing large constituency to serve past ninety years of age: David Cohen (2004)
• First Jewish whip in the U.S. House of Representatives: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish party whip in either house)
• First openly gay Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: Jared Polis (2009)
• Number of Jewish Senators rises from thirteen to fifteen (15% of all American Senators vs. approx. 2% of the general population) (2009)
• First Jewish floor leader in the U.S. House of Representatives: Eric Cantor (2011) (also first Jewish floor leader and Majority Leader in either house)
• First Jewish mayor of minority descent: Eric Garcetti, elected mayor of Los Angeles (2013)
• First Jewish female Cabinet member/United States Secretary of Commerce: Penny Pritzker (2013)
• First Jewish American to win a U.S. presidential primary: Bernie Sanders, New Hampshire primary, (2016)^[1][2][3][4] (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian).^[5]

See also

• List of Jewish American politicians

References

1. "New Hampshire Primary Election Results 2016 - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
2. Patrick Healy; Jonathan Martin (February 10, 2016). "Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Win the New Hampshire Primaries". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2016. ...Mr. Sanders was the choice, nearly unanimously, among voters who said it was most important to have a candidate who is "honest and trustworthy."
3. "Bernie Sanders becomes first Jewish, non-Christian candidate to win U.S. primary". The Week. February 9, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
4. Krieg, Gregory. "Bernie Sanders could be the first Jewish president. Does he care?", CNN (February 5, 2016): "Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, has repeatedly described himself as a secular Jew...."
5. Krieg, Gregory (February 5, 2016). "Sanders 1st Jewish candidate to win presidential primary". CNN.