Thomas Rivera Schatz (born June 10, 1966) is a Puerto Rican

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

, legal advisor, attorney, and former prosecutor, who was the fourteenth and sixteenth

President of the Senate of Puerto Rico The president of the Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Presidente del Senado) is the highest-ranking officer and the presiding officer of the Senate of Puerto Rico. The president has voting powers as it is elected amongst the own members of the Senate ...

. He is affiliated with

New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico The New Progressive Party ( es, Partido Nuevo Progresista, PNP) is a political party in Puerto Rico that advocates statehood. The PNP is one of the two major parties in Puerto Rico with significant political strength and currently holds both t ...

(abbr. PNP in Spanish) and the mainland

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *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 Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2019. He resigned on August 2, 2019, after protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the s ...

due to the

Telegramgate Telegramgate, also known as Chatgate or RickyLeaks, was a political scandal involving Ricardo Rosselló, then Governor of Puerto Rico, which began on July 8, 2019, with the leak of hundreds of pages of a group chat on the messaging application ...

scandal.

Early life and studies

Rivera Schatz was born on June 10, 1966, in the Bronx Borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is the son of José A. "Nía" Rivera, a past mayor of

Trujillo Alto Trujillo Alto (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Northern Coastal Plain, on the boundary between the karst zone and Sierra de Luquillo, north of Caguas, and Gurabo; southeast of San Juan, and west of Carolina. Trujil ...

, and Christina Schatz, a German woman. While in college, he worked full-time at the City of San Juan Public Works Department. He attended the

Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law The Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Faculty of Law ( es, links=no, Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico) is the school of law of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, a private co-educational corpo ...

, where he graduated in 1992. A year later, he passed the

bar exam A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...

required to practice law in Puerto Rico. Rivera Schatz started his legal career as a legal advisor in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

of Puerto Rico. In 1996,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...

appointed him as a prosecutor at the

Puerto Rico Department of Justice The Puerto Rico Department of Justice (PR DOJ) is the Executive Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico responsible for the enforcement of the local law in the commonwealth and the administration of justice. The Department is equivalent ...

. After finishing his service as a prosecutor, he returned to private practice, handling both criminal and civil cases.

Political career

Electoral Commissioner and Secretary General: 2000-2007

In 2000, Rivera Schatz was named Electoral Commissioner for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP). Two years later, party president

named Rivera Schatz as secretary general of the PNP in addition to his current position as electoral commissioner. He served both positions simultaneously until August 1, 2007, when he decided to run for senator.

Senator: 2008-present

Rivera Schatz ran for senator at the PNP primaries where he won a slot in the ballot, receiving the second-most votes. In the 2008 general elections, Rivera Schatz was elected senator. His fellow senators then elected him to be the 14th president of Puerto Rico's Senate. As such, he selected the following persons for his team: * Senator

Margarita Nolasco Margarita Nolasco Santiago is a Puerto Rican politician, senator, and former Mayor of Coamo. She has been a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico since 2004. Early years and studies Margarita Nolasco obtained her bachelor's degree from the Pont ...

as Senate President

Pro tempore ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a '' locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence o ...

* Senator

Larry Seilhamer Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boon ...

as majority leader * Senator Melinda Romero as

Majority Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideolog ...

* Roberto "Junior" Maldonado as chief administrative officer of the Senate. * Senate Secretary Manuel A. Torres was nominated by Rivera Schatz and reelected to a second term, becoming the first Senate secretary to serve under two different Senate Presidents * Incumbent Superintendent of the Capitol, Eliezer Velázquez, was nominated by Rivera Schatz and ratified by House Speaker

Jennifer González Jennifer or Jenifer may refer to: People *Jennifer (given name) * Jenifer (singer), French pop singer * Jennifer Warnes, American singer who formerly used the stage name Jennifer * Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer * Daniel Jenifer Film and tele ...

for a second term, a first for a superintendent. Rivera Schatz was sworn into his post on January 12, 2009. Thomas Rivera Schatz was reelected in 2012 and elected for the third time as a member of the Senate majority in the 2016 election with 10.33% of the "at large" votes, placing him in second place after independent senatorial candidate Dr. José Vargas Vidot and followed by Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP). Rivera Schatz was elected to a second term as President of the Senate of Puerto Rico starting January 2017. He holds two records, first as the only reelected Senate President during the past 28 years and the only Senate President ever elected as such to non-consecutive terms.

PNP President

On July 22, 2019, Rivera Schatz announced he would succeed Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló as head of the

(PNP). Rosselló announced his intention to resign due to the ongoing controversy surrounding

Personal life

Rivera Schatz and his father are avid collectors of antique cars.Detras del político
on ''

El Vocero ''El Vocero de Puerto Rico'' is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican free newspaper that is published in San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Published since 1974, ''El Vocero'' was at first the third of the four largest Puerto Rico newspapers, trailing ''El M ...

''; Méndez, Milly (February 11, 2011)

References

External links

Biography at the official website of the Senate of Puerto Rico
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivera Schatz, Thomas 1966 births 20th-century Puerto Rican lawyers 20th-century Puerto Rican politicians 21st-century Puerto Rican lawyers 21st-century Puerto Rican politicians Interamerican University of Puerto Rico alumni Members of the Senate of Puerto Rico Living people New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Politicians from the Bronx Presidents of the New Progressive Party (Puerto Rico) Presidents of the Senate of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican people of German descent Puerto Rican Roman Catholics Republican Party (Puerto Rico) politicians