Senate

Schumer wants New Yorker on $10 bill

by Jordain Carney - 07/01/15 3:19 PM ET

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is hoping to get a woman from his home state as the new face on the $10 bill.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced last month that he would bump Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill and place the first woman on American paper currency in more than 100 years.

#TheNew10 will finally put a woman’s face on our paper currency- shouldn’t she be a NYer too? Vote today: http://t.co/Q5IWueozWs

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 1, 2015

{mosads}The New Yorker, who is expected to be the next Democratic leader in the Senate, is trying to rally support around a nominee from his home state. He’s set up a poll on his Senate website to select a woman who lived in New York, who he’ll then recommend to Lew.

“It’s time we have an American woman represented on our paper currency and the public should have a say in this decision,” Schumer said in a statement, adding that the poll could help decide “which great New York woman should be featured on U.S. currency.”

Participants in Schumer’s poll can pick between Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eleanor Roosevelt or submit the name of “another NY woman who inspires you.”

In a separate online poll, which was part of the “Women on the 20s campaign,” abolitionist Harriet Tubman was picked to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

The decision to remove Hamilton from the currency got some pushback on Tuesday evening from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who called the decision “a terrible idea.”

“This is not about whether or not we should honor women who were important in American history. The question is whether you want to kind of take Hamilton off of the currency. I mean, the most appropriate honor I can think of is to have Alexander Hamilton on some American currency,” he told WDRB, a local TV station in Kentucky.

Tags Chuck Schumer Jack Lew Mitch McConnell