# Brian Schatz **Brian Emanuel Schatz** (b. October 20, 1972) is the senior U.S. senator from Hawaii, a Democrat, and the party's incoming **Senate whip** — its second-ranking leadership post. ## Why he's on the map Schatz matters to this knowledge base for institutional rather than ideological reasons: from January 2027 he is one of the handful of people who decide which bills reach the Senate floor and how Democrats vote on them. He won the race to succeed [[Dick Durbin]] as whip, locking up the necessary commitments with [[Chuck Schumer]]'s backing. Because Democrats took the Senate in the [[2026 Midterm Elections]], the post he inherits is **majority** whip rather than minority whip — the vote-counting job for a chamber that will be running the oversight the previous Congress refused. He is also the Senate's most persistent climate-policy voice, which puts him opposite most of the energy and fossil-fuel network mapped elsewhere here. ## Background Schatz came to the Senate by **appointment on December 26, 2012**, chosen by Governor Neil Abercrombie to fill the seat left by Daniel Inouye's death nine days earlier. The appointment was contested within his own party: Inouye's dying request had been that Representative Colleen Hanabusa succeed him, and Hawaii law required the governor to choose from three names submitted by the state party. Abercrombie picked Schatz, then the lieutenant governor, over Hanabusa. He won the 2014 special election to hold the seat and has been re-elected twice since, most recently in 2022, so he next faces voters in 2028. ## In the Senate - **Climate.** Co-chair of the Senate Climate Change Task Force and chair of the Democratic Special Committee on the Climate Crisis; a principal advocate for the clean-energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. - **Indian Affairs.** Chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs from 2021 to 2025 and has been its vice chair since. - **Housing.** Co-author, with Republican Todd Young, of the YIMBY Act, enacted in the December 2022 spending bill — a rare bipartisan federal intervention on local zoning. - **Children and platforms.** Lead sponsor of the Kids Off Social Media Act, introduced January 2025 with Ted Cruz, Chris Murphy and Katie Britt. ## See also - [[Dick Durbin]] — The retiring whip he succeeds - [[Chuck Schumer]] — Whose backing settled the whip race - [[2026 Midterm Elections]] — The result that makes the post majority whip - [[United States Senate]]