Paul Eric Strauss (born April 11, 1964) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States shadow senator from the District of Columbia since 1997. He succeeded Jesse Jackson, the first person to hold the elected position of a shadow senator for Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life and education
Strauss was born to a Jewish family, in Brooklyn, raised in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and graduated from Dwight School. His father was a painting contractor for Yankee Stadium. As a youth, Strauss was active in politics, volunteering for the election campaigns of Mario Biaggi, Hugh Carey, and Jimmy Carter. At 17, he interned for New York City mayor Ed Koch with his own desk and phone in the Tweed Courthouse. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1982 at the age of 18, later earning his bachelor's degree (1986) and Juris Doctor (1993) at American University.
Career
Strauss is a former chairperson of the District's Board of Real Property Assessments and Appeals. He has also been a union organizer for Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25. Strauss is an attorney and principal of the Law Offices of Paul Strauss & Associates, P.C., a law firm specializing in real estate, business, and family law.
In his first political campaign in Washington, D.C., he mobilized other college students to register to vote against raising the drinking age to 21.
Shadow Senator
Prior to being elected as a shadow senator in 1996, Strauss served in several locally elected government positions. He served as the at-large member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, Chairperson of the Democratic Party's D.C. Statehood Committee, Chairperson of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E, and Chairperson of Neighborhood Planning Council #3. Strauss was first elected to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 1986 as the youngest chairperson and served as a commissioner there until 1996.
As one of the District of Columbia's two shadow senators, Strauss lobbies the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the citizens of D.C. in their attempt to gain full federal representation, self-determination, and eventually admittance to the Union as the 51st state. As a shadow senator, Strauss cannot vote on matters before the Senate.
In 2006, Strauss ran for the Council of the District of Columbia to represent Ward 3. He came in second place in the Democratic primary, receiving 15% of the vote, while Mary Cheh received 44% of the vote.
Strauss was selected to be a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention where he endorsed Barack Obama.
Strauss was re-elected in 2008. Strauss received 65% of the vote in the September Democratic primary, while Democratic challenger Phil Pannell received 33%. In the November general election, Strauss faced Republican Nelson F. Rimensnyder, D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate Keith Ware, and Libertarian Party Candidate Damien Lincoln Ober. Strauss received 82% of the vote, giving him his largest margin of victory ever.
Strauss was again re-elected in 2014, with 77.3% of the vote.
In 2014, Strauss launched the "51 Stars" campaign, enlisting the help of 51 celebrities and public figures to support the initiative for D.C. Statehood and endorse the District of Columbia as the fifty-first star on the U.S. flag upon admittance to the union. Notable endorsers of the public service campaign included Dave Chappelle, Rosario Dawson, Jonathan Banks, and others.
Strauss testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs in 2014 regarding the New Columbia Admission Act of 2013. His testimony argued the historical case for D.C. statehood, saying "We are all Americans. We all deserve to participate in the democracy our nation’s founders set before us. To deny basic rights to the citizens of the National Capital, makes a mockery of our attempts to act as a model of democracy for the rest of the world."
In February 2015, Strauss traveled to Iowa to encourage Democratic and Republican party chapters to discuss D.C. statehood at their local caucuses, and inspired the Polk County Democrats to pass a resolution in support of D.C. statehood in March. He traveled there again the following year for the 2016 Iowa caucuses, after running political ads from the national "51 Stars" campaign. Working with a new bipartisan group called Iowans for D.C. Statehood, Strauss took the opportunity to address Democratic precincts in Iowa.