"Fidel? Charlie here," he said, "You remember that bill I introduced back in 1973 to ease trade restrictions with Cuba? I talked to the president today and he's going to make it happen. I told you it would work but you just had to be patient!"
Rangel never had any trouble being reelected and served 46 years as the congressman from Harlem. The only true contest he had with the polls was in his initial election in 1970 when he narrowly unseated another genuine legend of Harlem: Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.