26th Senate of Puerto Rico | |||||||||||||||||
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In session | |||||||||||||||||
January 2, 2017 – January 1, 2021 | |||||||||||||||||
Leadership | |||||||||||||||||
President | Thomas Rivera Schatz | ||||||||||||||||
President pro tem | Larry Seilhamer | ||||||||||||||||
Majority Leader | Carmelo Ríos | ||||||||||||||||
Majority Whip | Ángel Chayanne Martínez | ||||||||||||||||
Minority Leaders | Eduardo Bhatia Juan Dalmau Vargas Vidot | ||||||||||||||||
Minority Whip | José Luis Dalmau | ||||||||||||||||
Structure | |||||||||||||||||
Seats | 30 voting members | ||||||||||||||||
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Parties represented | 21 PNP 7 PPD 1 PIP 1 Independent | ||||||||||||||||
Length of term | 4 years | ||||||||||||||||
Elections | |||||||||||||||||
Last election | November 6, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||
Next election | November 8, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||
Legislature | |||||||||||||||||
18th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico | |||||||||||||||||
Lower house | |||||||||||||||||
30th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico | |||||||||||||||||
Sessions | |||||||||||||||||
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The 26th Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the 18th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. Its counterpart in the lower house is the 30th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico.
The body will meet from January 2, 2017, to January 1, 2021, while under the oversight of the fiscal control board established by PROMESA.
But in contrast to its standard composition, the numbers of legislators in this senate increased to 30 after the New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish) won more than two thirds of the original 27 seats in contention during the 2016 general election. This provision was automatically triggered by Article Three of the Constitution of Puerto Rico which mandates that in such a case the number of minority legislators should total 9.
District | Name | Affiliation |
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District I San Juan | Henry Neumann | PNP |
Miguel Romero | PNP | |
District II Bayamón | Migdalia Padilla | PNP |
Carmelo Ríos | PNP | |
District III Arecibo | Ángel Chayanne Martínez | PNP |
José Joito Pérez | PNP | |
District IV Mayagüez–Aguadilla | Luis Daniel Muñiz | PNP |
Evelyn Vázquez | PNP | |
District V Ponce | Luis Berdiel | PNP |
Nelson Cruz Santiago | PNP | |
District VI Guayama | Axel Roque | PNP |
Carlos Rodríguez Mateo | PNP | |
District VII Humacao | Miguel Laureano | PNP |
José Luis Dalmau | PPD | |
District VIII Carolina | Nayda Venegas | PNP |
Eric Correa | PNP | |
At-large | Zoé Laboy | PNP |
Abel Nazario | PNP | |
Margarita Nolasco | PNP | |
Itzamar Peña | PNP | |
Thomas Rivera Schatz | PNP | |
Larry Seilhamer | PNP | |
Eduardo Bhatia | PPD | |
Rossana López León | PPD | |
Miguel Pereira | PPD | |
José Nadal Power | PPD | |
Cirilo Tirado | PPD | |
Aníbal José Torres | PPD | |
Miguel Pereira | PPD | |
Juan Dalmau | PIP | |
Vargas Vidot | Independent |
![]() | This section needs to be updated.(December 2016) |
Post | Name | Political party |
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Secretary | Manuel A. Torres [1] | PNP |
Serjeant-at-Arms | Joel Fontánez González [lower-alpha 1] | PNP |
Thomas Rivera Schatz is a Puerto Rican politician, legal advisor, attorney, and former prosecutor, who was the fourteenth and sixteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico. He is affiliated with New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico and the mainland Republican Party. On July 22, 2019, Rivera Schatz announced that he will take over as acting chair of the PNP following the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló due to the Telegramgate scandal.
Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández is a politician who served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, he co-chaired her successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the Thirteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico until December 31, 2008. He chaired Luis Fortuño’s Incoming Committee on Government Transition in 2008 and the Outgoing Committee on Government Transition in 2012, the only Puerto Rican to serve in both capacities. He was sworn into office as secretary of state on January 2, 2009, by Chief Justice Federico Hernández Denton, fulfilling the role of lieutenant governor in the island.
Manuel A. Torres-Nieves, Puerto Rico's longest-serving secretary of the Senate of Puerto Rico in modern times, first served during the tumultuous years of 2005–2008 in which the Senate was controlled by the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (NPP) while the governorship had been controlled by the pro-status quo Popular Democratic Party, served a second consecutive term as Senate Secretary after having served as Acting President of the Senate from January 1–12, 2009, between the Senate presidencies of Kenneth McClintock and Thomas Rivera Schatz. He then served as Puerto Rico's first Electoral Comptroller before his third election as secretary of the Senate during Rivera Schatz' historic second non-consecutive term as Senate President, which ended January 11, 2021. On March 11, 2021, Governor Pedro Pierluisi nominated him as Comptroller of Puerto Rico, a constitutional role which requires the advice and consent of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
José Luis Dalmau Santiago is an attorney and politician. He is the current President of the Senate of Puerto Rico and President of the Popular Democratic Party. On February of 2023, he announced that he was evaluating the possibility of a PDP candidacy for governor of Puerto Rico in the 2024 elections.
Roberto Nicolás Rexach Benítez also known as his stage name Bobby, was a Puerto Rican politician, and former Senator and Representative. Rexach Benítez served as the tenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1996. He also served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 1973 to 1976, under the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and as a member of the Senate (1985–1998) under the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP).
The 16th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico will meet from January 2, 2009, to January 1, 2013. All members of the House of Representatives and the Senate were elected in the General Elections of 2008. The House and the Senate both have a majority of members from the New Progressive Party.
José Figueroa Sancha is a former superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department and former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Puerto Rico. After being appointed by governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño as superintendent in 2008, he resigned in 2011 amidst criticisms in the middle of a crime wave in the island.
The Academy of the Immaculate Conception is a coeducational Catholic school located in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Founded in 1905, it is among Puerto Rico's oldest institutions of learning. Though established by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, since 2015 it is owned and operated by the Colegio Católico Notre Dame in Caguas.
Antonio "Toñito" Soto Díaz, commonly known as El Chuchín, was a Puerto Rican politician and former Senator.
Nicolás Nogueras Cartagena was a Puerto Rican politician, commentator and Senator. He was a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico for two separate periods of time. First from 1973 to 1985, and then from 1992 to 1996.
A constitutional referendum was held in Puerto Rico on 19 August 2012. Voters were asked whether they approve of two amendments to the constitution: one to eliminate the absolute right to bail and the other to decrease the number of members of the Legislative Assembly. Despite support from the party in government and part of the main opposition party, both amendments were rejected by voters.
The 25th Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the 17th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico and will meet from January 2, 2013, to January 1, 2017. All members were elected in the General Elections of 2012. The Senate has a majority of members from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). The body is counterparted by the 29th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico in the lower house.
The 29th House of Representatives of Puerto Rico is the lower house of the 17th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico and will meet from January 14, 2013, to January 8, 2017. All members were elected in the General Elections of 2012. The House has a majority of members from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).
The free association movement in Puerto Rico refers to initiatives throughout the history of Puerto Rico aimed at changing the current political status of Puerto Rico to that of a sovereign freely associated state. Locally, the term soberanista refers to someone that seeks to redefine the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States to that of a compact with full sovereignty. The term is mostly used in reference to those that support a compact of free association or a variation of this formula, commonly known as Estado Libre Asociado (ELA) Soberano, between Puerto Rico and the United States. Members of the independence movement that are willing to pursue alliances with this ideology are occasionally referred to as such, but are mostly known as independentistas. Consequently, soberanismo then became the local name for the free association movement.
Billy Sánchez is a former Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate of Puerto Rico. Sánchez has served in the position since January 2009. Before that, he served as Director of the Office of Public Housing.
The government of Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia was formed in the weeks following the 2020 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election as he released a list of nominees for most of the positions before his swearing in on 2 January 2021. His New Progressive Party (PNP) not having a majority in either chamber of the 19th Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico meant that he would have to further negotiate the approval of his nominees with the opposition parties that hold control of the legislature.
The government of Wanda Vázquez Garced was formed the week following the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares as a result of the massive protests resulting from the Telegramgate scandal, and a Supreme Court decision that vacated the office from an invalid occupant.
The government of Ricardo Rosselló Nevares was formed in the weeks following the 2016 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election and ended prematurely on the first week of August 2019.
The government of Alejandro García Padilla was formed in the weeks following the 2012 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election and was sworn in initially in January of 2013, with some confirmations coming in later. It featured a pro-Independence secretary, a non-partisan Secretary of Governance, as well as the continuation of the previous PNP administrations' Commissioner of Safety and Public Protection.