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)^[1]
• First Jewish soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War: Francis Salvador (1776)^[2]
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Lewis Charles Levin (1845)^[3]
• First Jewish member of the United States Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845)^[4]
• First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Portland, Oregon): Bernard Goldsmith (1869)
  • Two years later, Philip Wasserman became a mayor of Portland (1871)
• First elected Jewish governor of a U.S. state (California): Washington Bartlett (1887)^[5]
• First Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor): Oscar Straus (1906)^[6]
  • Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of War^[7]
• First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916)^[8]
  • President Millard Fillmore offered to appoint Judah P. Benjamin to the Supreme Court in 1853, but Benjamin declined.^[7]
• First Jewish female member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Florence Prag Kahn (1925)^[9]
• First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934)^[10]
• 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)^[11][12]
• First person of Sephardic Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States: Louis Abolafia (1968)^[13]
• First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Tonie Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972)^[14]
• First Jewish Secretary of Defense: James R. Schlesinger (1973)^[15]
• First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973)^[16]
• First Jewish Attorney General: Edward H. Levi (1975)^[17]
• First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (Dallas): Adlene Harrison (1976)^[18]
• First elected Jewish female governor of a U.S. state (Vermont): Madeleine M. Kunin (1985)^[19]
• First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989)^[20]
  • Jared Polis was the first Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: (2009)^[21]
• First senate election in which both major party candidates were Jewish. (1990 Minnesota U.S. Senate Election, in which Paul Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz) (1990)^[22]
• First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Bernie Sanders (1991)^[23]
• First Jewish female members of the United States Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993)^[24]
• First Jewish female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993)^[25]
• First Jewish female U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of State): Madeleine Albright (1997) (also first woman Secretary of State)^{[26][27][28][29]}
• 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)^[30]
• First Jewish whip in the U.S. House of Representatives: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish party whip in either house)^[31]
• 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)^[31]
• First Jewish American to win a presidential primary: Bernie Sanders, New Hampshire primary, (2016)^{[32][33][34][35]} (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian).^[36]
• First Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President: Bernie Sanders (2016, from a faithless elector)^[37] (Barry Goldwater was the first of Jewish heritage, in 1964, but was not Jewish)
• First Jewish floor leader in the U.S. Senate: Chuck Schumer (2017)^[38]
• First Jewish member of the first family: Ivanka Trump (2017)^[39]
• First Jewish Second Spouse: Douglas Emhoff (2021)
• First Jewish Senate Majority Leader: Chuck Schumer (2021)
• First Jewish female (and the first woman) Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen (2021)

See also[]

• List of Jewish American politicians

References[]