List of Jewish American politicians

This is a list of notable Jewish American politicians, arranged chronologically. For other Jewish Americans, see Lists of Jewish Americans.

Federal government

Members of Congress

Cabinet officials

	Position	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	President(s)
	Secretary of Commerce and Labor		Oscar Straus[1]	December 17, 1906	March 5, 1909		Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
	Secretary of the Treasury		Henry Morgenthau[1]	January 1, 1934	July 22, 1945[2]		Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)
							Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
	Acting Secretary of Commerce		Lewis Strauss[1]	November 13, 1958	June 30, 1959		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
	Secretary of Labor		Arthur Goldberg[1]	January 21, 1961	September 20, 1962		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
	Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare		Abe Ribicoff[1]	January 21, 1961	July 13, 1962
	Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare		Wilbur Cohen[1]	May 16, 1968	January 20, 1969		Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
	Secretary of State		Henry Kissinger[1]	September 22, 1973	January 20, 1977[3]		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
							Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
	Attorney General		Edward Levi[1]	January 14, 1975	January 20, 1977
	Secretary of Defense		Harold Brown[1]	January 20, 1977	January 20, 1981		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
	Secretary of the Treasury		Michael Blumenthal[1]	January 23, 1977	August 4, 1979
	Secretary of Transportation		Neil Goldschmidt[1]	August 15, 1979	January 20, 1981
	Secretary of Commerce		Philip Klutznick[1]	January 9, 1980	January 20, 1981
	Secretary of Labor		Bob Reich[1]	January 22, 1993	January 20, 1997		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
	Secretary of the Treasury		Bob Rubin[1]	January 11, 1995	July 2, 1999
	Secretary of Agriculture		Dan Glickman[1]	March 30, 1995	January 20, 2001
	Secretary of Commerce		Mickey Kantor[1]	April 12, 1996	January 21, 1997
	Secretary of Defense		William Cohen[4]	January 24, 1997	January 20, 2001
	Secretary of the Treasury		Larry Summers[1]	July 2, 1999	January 20, 2001
	Secretary of Homeland Security		Michael Chertoff[5]	February 15, 2005	January 21, 2009		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
	Attorney General		Michael Mukasey[6]	November 9, 2007	January 20, 2009
	Acting Secretary of the Treasury		Stuart Levey[7]	January 20, 2009	January 26, 2009		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
–	Acting Secretary of Labor		Seth Harris	January 22, 2013	July 23, 2013
	Acting Secretary of the Treasury		Neal Wolin[8]	January 25, 2013	February 28, 2013
	Secretary of the Treasury		Jack Lew[9]	February 28, 2013	January 20, 2017
	Acting Secretary of Commerce		Cam Kerry[10]	June 1, 2013	June 26, 2013
	Secretary of Commerce		Penny Pritzker[11]	June 26, 2013	January 20, 2017
	Acting Secretary of the Treasury		Adam Szubin[8]	January 20, 2017	February 13, 2017		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
	Secretary of the Treasury		Steve Mnuchin	February 13, 2017	January 20, 2021
	Secretary of Veteran Affairs		David Shulkin[12]	February 14, 2017	March 28, 2018
	Acting Attorney General		Jeff Rosen[13]	December 23, 2020	January 20, 2021
	Secretary of State		Tony Blinken[14]	January 26, 2021	Incumbent		Joe Biden (2021–present)
	Secretary of the Treasury		Janet Yellen[14]	January 26, 2021	Incumbent
	Secretary of Homeland Security		Alejandro Mayorkas[14]	February 2, 2021	Incumbent
	Attorney General		Merrick Garland[14]	March 11, 2021	Incumbent

Cabinet-level officials

	Position	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	President(s)
	United States Ambassador to the United Nations		Arthur Goldberg[1]	July 28, 1965	June 24, 1968		Lyndon B. Johnson (1964–1969)
	United States Trade Representative		Robert Strauss[15]	March 30, 1977	August 17, 1979		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
	White House Chief of Staff		Ken Duberstein[16]	July 1, 1988	January 20, 1989		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
	United States Trade Representative		Mickey Kantor[1]	January 22, 1993	April 12, 1996		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
	Director of Central Intelligence		John Deutch[17]	May 10, 1995	December 15, 1996
	United States Trade Representative		Charlene Barshefsky[18]	April 12, 1996	March 18, 1997
				March 18, 1997	January 20, 2001
	Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Jack Lew[9]	May 21, 1998	January 19, 2001
	Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Josh Bolten[19]	June 26, 2003	April 14, 2006		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
	White House Chief of Staff			April 14, 2006	January 20, 2009
	White House Chief of Staff		Rahm Emanuel[20]	January 20, 2009	October 1, 2010		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
	Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Peter Orszag[21]	January 20, 2009	July 30, 2010
	Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Jeff Zients[22]	July 30, 2010	November 18, 2010
	Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Jack Lew[9]	November 18, 2010	January 27, 2012
	White House Chief of Staff			January 27, 2012	January 20, 2013
	Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers		Alan Krueger[23]	November 7, 2011	August 2, 2013
	Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget		Jeff Zients[22]	January 27, 2012	April 24, 2013
	United States Trade Representative		Mike Froman[24]	June 21, 2013	January 20, 2017
	Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers		Jason Furman[25]	August 2, 2013	January 20, 2017
	White House Chief of Staff		Ron Klain[26][27]	January 20, 2021	February 8, 2023		Joe Biden (2021–present)
	Director of National Intelligence		Avril Haines[28]	January 21, 2021	Incumbent
	Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy		Eric Lander[14]	June 2, 2021	February 18, 2022
	White House Chief of Staff		Jeff Zients[22]	February 8, 2023	Incumbent
	Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers		Jared Bernstein	July 10, 2023	Incumbent

State government

Governors

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office	Notes
	Georgia		David Emanuel[29]	Democratic-Republican	March 3, 1801	November 7, 1801	Emanuel may not have been an openly practicing Jew. As an adult he became a Presbyterian, but modern historians accept he was Jewish.[30]
	Wisconsin		Edward Salomon[31]	Republican	April 19, 1862	January 4, 1864
	Washington		Edward Salomon[32][33]	Republican	March 4, 1870	May 26, 1872
	California		Washington Bartlett[34]	Democratic	January 8, 1887	September 12, 1887	California's first and only Jewish governor
	Idaho		Moses Alexander[29]	Democratic	January 4, 1915	January 6, 1919	Idaho's first and only Jewish governor
	Utah		Simon Bamberger[29]	Democratic	January 1, 1917	January 1, 1921	Utah's first and only Jewish governor
	New Mexico		Arthur Seligman[29]	Democratic	January 1, 1931	September 25, 1933	New Mexico's first Jewish governor
	Oregon		Julius Meier[29]	Independent	January 12, 1931	January 14, 1935	Oregon's first Jewish governor
	New York		Herbert Lehman[29]	Democratic	January 1, 1933	December 3, 1942	New York's first Jewish governor
	Illinois		Henry Horner[29]	Democratic	January 9, 1933	October 6, 1940	Illinois' first Jewish governor
	Alaska		Ernest Gruening[29]	Democratic	December 6, 1939	April 10, 1953	Alaska's first and only Jewish governor
	Connecticut		Abe Ribicoff[1]	Democratic	January 5, 1955	January 21, 1961	Connecticut's first and only Jewish governor
	Illinois		Samuel Shapiro[29]	Democratic	May 21, 1968	January 13, 1969
	Rhode Island		Frank Licht[29]	Democratic	January 7, 1969	January 2, 1973	Rhode Island's first Jewish governor
	Maryland		Marvin Mandel[29]	Democratic	January 7, 1969	January 17, 1979	Maryland's first and only Jewish governor *Blair Lee III served as Acting Governor from June 4, 1977, to January 15, 1979
	Pennsylvania		Milton Shapp[29]	Democratic	January 19, 1971	January 16, 1979	Pennsylvania's first Jewish governor
	Vermont		Madeleine Kunin[29]	Democratic	January 10, 1985	January 10, 1991
	Oregon		Neil Goldschmidt[1]	Democratic	January 12, 1987	January 14, 1991
	Rhode Island		Bruce Sundlun[29]	Democratic	January 1, 1991	January 3, 1995
	Hawaii		Linda Lingle[35]	Republican	December 2, 2002	December 6, 2010	Hawaii's first Jewish governor
	Pennsylvania		Ed Rendell[36]	Democratic	January 21, 2003	January 18, 2011
	New York		Eliot Spitzer[37]	Democratic	January 1, 2007	March 17, 2008
	Delaware		Jack Markell[38]	Democratic	January 20, 2009	January 17, 2017
	Vermont		Peter Shumlin[39]	Democratic	January 6, 2011	January 5, 2017
	Missouri		Eric Greitens[40]	Republican	January 9, 2017	June 1, 2018
	Colorado		Jared Polis[41]	Democratic	January 8, 2019	Incumbent
	Illinois		J. B. Pritzker[42]	Democratic	January 14, 2019	Incumbent
	Hawaii		Josh Green	Democratic	December 5, 2022	Incumbent
	Pennsylvania		Josh Shapiro	Democratic	January 17, 2023	Incumbent

Lieutenant governors

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	Louisiana		Henry Hyams[38]	Democratic	January 23, 1860	January 25, 1864
	New York		Herbert Lehman[29]	Democratic	January 1, 1929	December 31, 1932
	Illinois		Samuel Shapiro[29]	Democratic	January 9, 1961	May 21, 1968
	Vermont		Madeleine Kunin[29]	Democratic	January 10, 1979	January 10, 1983
	Missouri		Ken Rothman[43]	Democratic	January 12, 1981	January 15, 1985
	Rhode Island		Richard Licht[44]	Democratic	January 1, 1985	January 1, 1989
	Missouri		Harriett Woods[38]	Democratic	January 14, 1985	January 9, 1989
	Maryland		Melvin Steinberg[38]	Democratic	January 21, 1987	January 18, 1995
	Pennsylvania		Robert Jubelirer[45]	Republican	October 5, 2001	January 21, 2003
	Ohio		Lee Fisher[46]	Democratic	January 8, 2007	January 10, 2011
	Delaware		Matthew Denn[47]	Democratic	January 20, 2009	January 6, 2015
	New York		Richard Ravitch[48]	Democratic	July 9, 2009	December 31, 2010
	Louisiana		Jay Dardenne[49]	Republican	November 22, 2010	January 11, 2016
	Hawaii		Brian Schatz[50]	Democratic	December 6, 2010	December 26, 2012
	Connecticut		Nancy Wyman[51]	Democratic	January 5, 2011	January 9, 2019
	Kentucky		Jerry Abramson[52]	Democratic	December 13, 2011	November 13, 2014
	Florida		Carlos Lopez-Cantera[53]	Republican	February 3, 2014	January 7, 2019
	Vermont		David Zuckerman[54]	Vermont Progressive Party	January 5, 2017	January 7, 2021
	Hawaii		Josh Green[55]	Democratic	December 3, 2018	December 5, 2022
	Vermont		David Zuckerman	Vermont Progressive Party	January 5, 2023	Incumbent

State Attorneys General

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	New York		Simon Rosendale[56]	Democratic	January 1, 1892	December 31, 1893
	Maryland		Isidor Rayner[57]	Democratic	1899	1903
	Maryland		Isaac Straus[38]	Democratic	1907	1911
	New York		Carl Sherman[58]	Democratic	January 1, 1923	December 31, 1924
	New York		Albert Ottinger[59]	Republican	January 1, 1925	December 31, 1928
	Ohio		Gilbert Bettman[38]	Republican	January 14, 1929	January 12, 1933
	New Jersey		David Wilentz[60]	Democratic	1934	1944
	New York		Nathaniel Goldstein[38]	Republican	January 1, 1943	December 31, 1954
	Delaware		Albert Young[61]	Independent	1951	1955
	Massachusetts		George Fingold[62]	Republican	January 8, 1953	August 31, 1958
	New York		Jacob Javits[38]	Republican	January 1, 1955	January 9, 1957
	New York		Louis Lefkowitz[38]	Republican	January 10, 1957	December 31, 1978
	California		Stanley Mosk[38]	Democratic	January 5, 1959	1964
	New Hampshire		Warren Rudman[38]	Republican	1970	1976
	Rhode Island		Richard Israel[38]	Republican	January 5, 1971	January 7, 1975
	Florida		Robert Shevin[38]	Democratic	January 5, 1971	January 2, 1979
	Vermont		Jerome Diamond[38]	Democratic	1975	1981
	Rhode Island		Julius Michaelson[38]	Democratic	January 7, 1975	January 2, 1979
	New York		Robert Abrams[38]	Democratic	January 1, 1979	January 31, 1993
	Maryland		Stephen Sachs[38]	Democratic	January 17, 1979	January 21, 1987
	Connecticut		Joe Lieberman[38]	Democratic	January 5, 1983	January 3, 1989
	Connecticut		Richard Blumenthal[38]	Democratic	January 9, 1991	January 5, 2011
	Ohio		Lee Fisher[38]	Democratic	January 14, 1991	January 9, 1995
	New York		G. Oliver Koppell[63]	Democratic	January 1, 1993	December 31, 1994
	Rhode Island		Jeffrey Pine[38]	Republican	January 5, 1993	January 2, 1999
	New Jersey		Deborah Poritz[64]	Republican	1994	1996
	New York		Eliot Spitzer[38]	Democratic	January 1, 1999	December 31, 2006
	New Jersey		David Samson[65]	Independent	January 15, 2002	February 15, 2003
	New Jersey		Stuart Rabner[66]	Democratic	September 26, 2006	June 26, 2007
	Maryland		Doug Gansler[67]	Democratic	January 17, 2007	January 21, 2015
	Louisiana		Buddy Caldwell[68]	Democratic	January 14, 2008	February 2, 2011
				Republican	February 2, 2011	January 11, 2016
	New York		Eric Schneiderman[69]	Democratic	January 1, 2011	May 8, 2018
	Arizona		Tom Horne[70]	Republican	January 3, 2011	January 5, 2015
	Georgia		Sam Olens[71]	Republican	January 10, 2011	November 1, 2016
	Oregon		Ellen Rosenblum[72]	Democratic	June 29, 2012	Incumbent
	Delaware		Matthew Denn[47]	Democratic	January 6, 2015	January 1, 2019
	Maryland		Brian Frosh[73]	Democratic	January 21, 2015	January 3, 2023
	North Carolina		Josh Stein[74]	Democratic	January 1, 2017	Incumbent
	Pennsylvania		Josh Shapiro[75]	Democratic	January 17, 2017	January 17, 2023
	Michigan		Dana Nessel[76]	Democratic	January 1, 2019	Incumbent
	Colorado		Phil Weiser[77]	Democratic	January 8, 2019	Incumbent
	Washington D.C.		Brian Schwalb	Democratic	January 2, 2023	Incumbent

State Secretaries of State

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	New York		Samuel Koenig[38]	Republican	January 1, 1909	December 31, 1910
	New York		Mitchell May[38]	Democratic	January 1, 1913	December 31, 1914
	New York		Caroline Simon[78]	Republican	1959	1963
	Connecticut		Mildred Allen	Republican	January 3, 1955	January 3, 1959
	Florida		Richard Stone[38]	Democratic	January 5, 1971	July 8, 1974
	Florida		George Firestone[38]	Democratic	1979	1989
	Vermont		Deborah Markowitz[38]	Democratic	January 1999	January 2011
	Louisiana		Jay Dardenne[49]	Republican	November 10, 2006	November 22, 2010
	Missouri		Jason Kander[79]	Democratic	January 14, 2013	January 9, 2017
	Colorado		Jena Griswold[80]	Democratic	January 8, 2019	Incumbent

State Treasurers

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	New Jersey		David Naar	Democratic	1865	1865
	New Jersey		Katharine White[38] Acting	Democratic	1961	1961
	Maine		Samuel Shapiro[38]	Democratic	1981	1996
	Rhode Island		Nancy Mayer[38]	Republican	1993	1997
	Delaware		Jack Markell[38]	Democratic	January 16, 1999	January 20, 2009
	Kentucky		Jonathan Miller[38]	Democratic	December 1999	December 11, 2007
	Massachusetts		Steve Grossman[81]	Democratic	January 17, 2011	January 21, 2015
	Ohio		Josh Mandel[82]	Republican	January 10, 2011	January 14, 2019
	Nevada		Dan Schwartz[83]	Republican	January 5, 2015	January 7, 2019
	Rhode Island		Seth Magaziner[84]	Democratic	January 6, 2015	January 3, 2023
	Massachusetts		Deb Goldberg[85]	Democratic	January 21, 2015	Incumbent

Other State Cabinet Positions

	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	Florida		Nikki Fried[86]	Democratic	January 8, 2019	January 3, 2023

Municipal government

Mayors of major cities

Current mayors of major cities

	City	State	Portrait	Name	Party	Assumed office	Left office
	Austin	Texas		Steve Adler[87]	Democratic	January 6, 2015	Incumbent
	Burlington	Vermont		Miro Weinberger[88]	Democratic	April 2, 2012	Incumbent
	Chattanooga	Tennessee		Andy Berke[89]	Democratic	April 15, 2013	Incumbent
	Jersey City	New Jersey		Steven Fulop[90]	Democratic	July 1, 2013	Incumbent
	Las Vegas	Nevada		Carolyn Goodman[91]	Independent	July 6, 2011	Incumbent
	Oakland	California		Libby Schaaf	Democratic	January 5, 2015	Incumbent
	Sacramento	California		Darrell Steinberg[92]	Democratic	December 13, 2016	Incumbent
	San Antonio	Texas		Ron Nirenberg[93]	Independent	June 21, 2017	Incumbent
	St. Petersburg	Florida		Rick Kriseman[93]	Democratic	January 2, 2014	Incumbent
	Minneapolis	Minnesota		Jacob Frey[94]	Democratic	January 2, 2018	Incumbent

Former mayors of major cities

Other

• Daniel Ankeles, Member of the Maine House of Representatives^[143]
• Lazarus Joseph (1891–1966), NY State Senator and New York City Comptroller

Presidential and vice presidential candidates

• Tonie Nathan was the vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in 1972. She received one electoral vote for vice president (from a faithless elector that had pledged his vote for Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew), thus becoming the first Jew to receive an electoral vote for either president or vice president.^[144]
• Arlen Specter ran for the Republican nomination in 1996, but dropped out before the Iowa caucuses. He later became a Democrat.^{[citation needed]}
• Joe Lieberman was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, receiving 266 electoral votes for vice president. Four years later, he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2004 election.^{[145][146][147]} He became an Independent in 2006.
• Jill Stein was the Green Party nominee in 2012. She lost with 0.36% of the vote, or 470,000 votes. She ran in the 2016 Presidential Election, but lost with just over one percent.^{[citation needed]}
• Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016 as a Democrat. He became the first Jewish candidate to win a Democratic party primary with a victory in New Hampshire. He lost the nomination to Hillary Clinton.^[148] He ran again in 2020. Sanders received one vote in the electoral college in 2016 from David Mulinix of Hawaii, thus making him the first Jew to receive a vote for president in the college. In addition to this, he received two invalidated votes from other voters in the electoral college.^[149]
• Michael Bennet ran in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.^[150]
• Michael Bloomberg ran in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.^[151]
• Marianne Williamson, raised in a Jewish family, ran in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.^[152]

See also

• List of Jewish political milestones in the United States
• List of Jewish American jurists

References

This page was last edited on 10 April 2024, at 03:47