Raymond O’Mara: Policy director, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY)

Few Capitol Hill staffers can match Raymond O’Mara and say they’ve worked at the leadership level in the Senate and the House, and even fewer can say they have worked in Congress from as many vantage points as he has.

O’Mara now serves as the top policy staffer for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who is involved in every aspect of the operation of his caucus in a way that few Senate leaders have ever been.

In working for him and others, O’Mara has developed expertise on an array of issues and helped spearhead Democratic policymaking on affordability, which has become the top issue of the 2026 midterm election because of Schumer’s prescient strategy of pushing it early and loudly after the 2024 presidential election.

Schumer’s co-sponsorship of bills and presence at press conferences on a multitude of issues is impressive, and he keeps in constant contact with members of the Democratic caucus with his trusty flip phone.

Before joining Schumer’s office, O’Mara worked his way up in the House, first as a legislative assistant to then-Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and then as legislative director before making the jump to serving as professional staff for then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

O’Mara returned to Sarbanes office to serve as deputy chief of staff from 2018-21.

He joined Schumer’s leadership office as legislative assistant in September 2021, during the heady days of the Senate Democratic majority when Schumer was leading the effort to implement then-President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

O’Mara then worked a half-year stint as external affairs director for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He returned to Schumer’s office as policy director in March 2023.

Even as he’s enmeshed in complex and high-stakes policy discussions at the highest levels of Washington, O’Mara takes his off-duty hobbies seriously.

He plays drums in a rock band, is an avid fisherman and he’s an ambitious chef who doesn’t do anything halfway, even curing his own meats.