List of Jewish political milestones in the United States

{{Short description|none}}

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){{Cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Today-in-History-The-first-American-Jewish-patriot-441126|title=Today in History: The first American-Jewish patriot|website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com|date=11 January 2016 |access-date=2020-02-23}}
• First Jewish soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War: Francis Salvador (1776){{Cite news|last=Green|first=David B.|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-1776-first-jew-dies-for-us-revolution-1.5315482|title=1776: The First Jew to Die for the Cause of the American Revolution|date=2013-08-01|work=Haaretz|access-date=2020-02-23|language=en}}
• First Jewish elected official in the United States: Judah Hays; as the Fire Commissioner of the Boston Fire Department (1805){{Cite web |last=Sharick |first=David |title=Timeline: Jewish Politics in Boston |url=https://dhjewsofboston.northeastern.edu/timeline-jewish-politics-in-boston/ |access-date=May 24, 2024 |website=Digital History of the Jews of Boston}}
• Francis Salvador was elected prior to the formation of the United States.
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Lewis Charles Levin (1845){{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lewis-charles-levin|title=Lewis Charles Levin|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• First Jewish member of the U.S. Senate: David Levy Yulee (1845){{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/david-levy-yulee|title=David Levy Yulee|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Portland, Oregon): Bernard Goldsmith (1869)
• Two years later, Philip Wasserman succeeded him as mayor.
• First Jewish governor of a U.S. state (California): Washington Bartlett (1887){{Cite web|url=http://www.jmaw.org/alexander-jewish-idaho/|title=Moses Alexander: Jewish Governor of Idaho, First Jewish Governor in the United States|website=Jewish Museum of the American West}}
• First Jewish U.S. Cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor): Oscar Straus (1906){{Cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1934/07/11/archive/first-jew-in-cabinet|title=First Jew in Cabinet|date=1934-07-11|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• Not including Judah P. Benjamin, who served in the Confederate Cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of War.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/judah-benjamin|title=Judah Benjamin|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916){{Cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/louis-brandeis/|title=Louis D. Brandeis, Pioneer of the Senate Confirmation Battles|website=My Jewish Learning|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• 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){{Cite web|url=https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/K/KAHN,-Florence-Prag-(K000002)/|title=KAHN, Florence Prag {{!}} US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives|website=history.house.gov|language=en|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934){{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/henry-morgenthau|title=Henry Morgenthau|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|language=en|access-date=2020-02-23}}
• 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){{Cite web|url=https://swja.library.arizona.edu/content/goldwaters|title=The Goldwaters {{!}} Southwest Jewish Archives|website=swja.library.arizona.edu|access-date=2020-02-23}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/goldwater-takedown-14787.html|title=The Goldwater Takedown|last1=Journal|first1=Harry Stein is a contributing editor of City|last2=Racist|first2=the author of No Matter What They’ll Call This Book|date=2016-10-14|website=City Journal|language=en|access-date=2020-02-24|last3=Tripp|first3=the comic novel Will|last4=Attorney-at-Law|first4=Pissed-Off}}
• First person of Sephardic Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States: Louis Abolafia (1968){{cite news |last1=Stevenson |first1=James |title=Abolafia for President |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1967/05/13/abolafia-for-president |publisher=New Yorker |date=1967-05-13}}
• First Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote for Vice President: Tonie Nathan of the Libertarian Party, from a faithless elector (1972){{Cite web|url=https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/theodora-tonie-nathan/|title=Theodora "Tonie" Nathan -|website=Archives of Women's Political Communication|language=en|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973){{Cite journal|last=Ribak|first=Gil|date=2010-01-01|title=A Jew for All Seasons: Henry Kissinger, Jewish Expectations, and the Yom Kippur War|journal=Israel Studies Review|volume=25|issue=2|pages=1–25|doi=10.3167/isf.2010.250201|issn=2159-0370}}
• First Jewish Mayor of New York City: Abraham Beame (1974), (Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor from 1934 to 1946, was born to an Italian Jewish mother from Trieste and a lapsed Catholic turned atheist father from Apulia; however, he was a Protestant){{cite news |last1=Green |first1=David |title=This Day in Jewish History: 1973: A Jewish Mayor for New York City |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2012-11-06/ty-article/1973-new-york-gets-a-jewish-mayor/0000017f-e959-d639-af7f-e9df47260000 |publisher=Haaretz |date=2012-11-06}}
• First Jewish Attorney General: Edward H. Levi (1975){{Cite web|url=https://provost.uchicago.edu/directory/edward-h-levi|title=Edward H. Levi {{!}} Office of the Provost|website=provost.uchicago.edu|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First Jewish female mayor of a major American city (Dallas): Adlene Harrison (1976){{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/new-mayor-seeks-her-footing-in-tradition-bound-alexandria/2016/01/03/5cccda8e-97a3-11e5-94f0-9eeaff906ef3_story.html|title=Adlene Harrison {{!}} Washington Post|website=washingtonpost.com|access-date=2021-01-06}}
• First Jewish Secretary of Defense: Harold Brown (1977){{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/obituaries/harold-brown-dead.html |title=Harold Brown, Defense Secretary in Carter Administration, Dies at 91 |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |date=January 5, 2019 |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 5, 2019 |issn=0362-4331}}
• First Jewish female governor of a U.S. state (Vermont): Madeleine M. Kunin (1985){{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kunin-madeleine|title=Madeleine May Kunin {{!}} Jewish Women's Archive|website=jwa.org|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First Jewish openly gay member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Barney Frank (took office 1981, disclosed homosexuality 1989){{Cite news|last=Burr|first=Kenneth|date=2012-07-26|title=Coming Out, Coming Home|doi=10.4324/9780203843673|isbn=9781136914669 }}
• Jared Polis became the first Jewish Congressman to be openly gay upon first election: (2009){{Cite news|title=ABC News/Washington Post Monthly Poll, September 2010|date=2011-12-01|doi=10.3886/icpsr32545.v1}}
• First U.S. Senate election in which both major party candidates were Jewish: 1990 Minnesota U.S. Senate Election; with Paul Wellstone defeated Rudy Boschwitz (1990){{Citation|title=Talk:Paul Wellstone|date=2019-02-12|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Paul_Wellstone&oldid=883010481|work=Wikipedia|language=en|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Bernie Sanders (1991){{Cite web|url=https://www.heyalma.com/a-list-of-jewish-firsts-in-american-political-history/|title=A List of Jewish Firsts in American Political History|date=2020-01-23|website=Alma|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First Jewish female members of the U.S. Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993){{Cite book|last=Stone, Kurt F.|title=The Jews of Capitol Hill : a Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members.|date=2011|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group|isbn=978-0-8108-7738-2|location=Lanham|oclc=700706822}}
• First Jewish female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993){{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ruth-bader-ginsburg|title=Ruth Bader Ginsburg|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First female Cabinet-level official: Charlene Barshefsky, U.S. Trade Representative (1997)[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/barshefsky-charlene Jewish Woman's Archive: "Charlene Barshefsky" by Robert D. Johnson] retrieved November 19, 2012
• 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){{Citation|chapter=Lieberman, Joseph I., (born 24 Feb. 1942), Member for Connecticut, US Senate, 1989–2012 (Democrat 1989–2006, Ind Democrat, 2006–12)|date=2007-12-01|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.24536|title=Who's Who}}
• First Jewish U.S. House whip: Eric Cantor (2009) (also first Jewish whip in either chamber of Congress){{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/eric-cantor|title=Eric Cantor|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=2020-02-24}}
• First Jewish U.S. House floor leader: Eric Cantor (2011)(also first Jewish floor leader and majority leader in either chamber of Congress)
• First Jewish female U.S. Cabinet member in the Presidential Line of Succession (Secretary of Commerce): Penny Pritzker (2013){{cite news |last1=Guttman |first1=Nathan |title=Why It Took Penny Pritzker 4 Years To Win Commerce Secretary Nomination |url=https://forward.com/news/175867/why-it-took-penny-pritzker-4-years-to-win-commerce/ |access-date=August 28, 2024 |work=The Forward |date=May 2, 2013}}
• First Jewish American to win a presidential primary (New Hampshire) and delegates: Bernie Sanders (2016){{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/primaries/new-hampshire |title=New Hampshire Primary Election Results 2016 - The New York Times |work=The New York Times |access-date=2016-06-18}}{{cite news|first1=Patrick |last1=Healy |first2=Jonathan |last2=Martin |title=Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Win the New Hampshire Primaries|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/us/politics/new-hampshire-primary.html|access-date=February 10, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=February 10, 2016|quote=...Mr. Sanders was the choice, nearly unanimously, among voters who said it was most important to have a candidate who is "honest and trustworthy."}}{{Cite news|url=http://theweek.com/speedreads/604757/bernie-sanders-becomes-first-jewish-nonchristian-candidate-win-primary|title=Bernie Sanders becomes first Jewish, non-Christian candidate to win U.S. primary|date=February 9, 2016|access-date=February 9, 2016|publisher=The Week}}Krieg, Gregory. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/bernie-sanders-jewish-new-hampshire-primary/ "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...." (Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, was the first winner of Jewish heritage, but was a Christian).{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/bernie-sanders-jewish-new-hampshire-primary/index.html|title=Sanders 1st Jewish candidate to win presidential primary|first=Gregory|last=Krieg|date=February 5, 2016|work=CNN}}
• First Jewish American to receive an electoral vote for President: Bernie Sanders, from a faithless elector (2016)[http://ballot-access.org/2016/12/19/seven-presidential-electors-are-allowed-to-cast-votes-for-candidates-other-than-donald-trump-or-hillary-clinton/ Seven Presidential Electors Are Allowed to Cast Votes for Candidates Other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton] Ballot Access News (Barry Goldwater was the first of Jewish heritage, in 1964, but was not Jewish)
• First Jewish U.S. Senate floor leader: Chuck Schumer (2017) (also first Jewish minority leader in either chamber of Congress){{cite web|last1=O'Keefe|first1=Ed|last2=DeBonis|first2=Mike|title=Schumer is next top Senate Democrat, adds Sanders to leadership ranks|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/16/schumer-elected-senate-democratic-leader/|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=6 January 2017}}
• First Jewish Second Gentleman (and first Jewish American spouse of Vice President): Douglas Emhoff (2021)
• First Jewish U.S. Senate majority leader: Chuck Schumer (2021)
• First Jewish female (and the first woman) Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen (2021)