Plenty of senators in the Democratic caucus are lukewarm about backing Chuck Schumer for majority leader. But nobody is stepping forward to challenge him.
After a closed-door Senate Democratic Caucus meeting on Tuesday, Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Bernie Sanders held a news conference to push for new blood in leadership. Michigan’s Slotkin said the team should govern for “folks from blue states, purple states and red states.” But both also said they weren’t interested in running.
“I am not actively seeking this job,” Slotkin said. “I am seeking change.”
While many have seen the midterm election results as a backlash against President Donald Trump and Republicans, the pair framed it as a call for a shake-up in the Democratic Party as well.
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Slotkin said she could vote for Schumer but that she first wanted to see “a plan on how they’re going to govern differently, what they’re going to do in the first 100 days to put money in people’s pockets and then in particular how they’re going to communicate differently.”
“I like Chuck,” Vermont’s independent Sen. Sanders said. “But in my view the time is now for change.”
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is the only Democrat who’s indicated any interest, but neither senator endorsed him. Slotkin said they had a “productive conversation” yesterday.
Van Hollen said he was “listening” to the calls for change and calling his Senate colleagues.
“We just saw democracy in America in action, we should bring a little more democracy to the United States Senate and a little more democracy to the United States Senate Democratic Caucus,” Van Hollen said at a Tuesday event hosted by the progressive group Groundwork Action.
Minutes later, at his own news conference just a floor below Sanders and Slotkin’s, Schumer shrugged off any possible challenge, saying, “We have great unity in our caucus,” and that he is “confident” he will be elected. The consummate insider has served in Washington for more than four decades and spent nearly a decade leading the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Some of the Democrats elected from red states who worked to distance themselves from the national Democratic brand previously said they would not support Schumer. They include Sens.-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Annie Andrews of South Carolina. Hamilton and Andrews have both declined to support Schumer in TV interviews since the election. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Sen. Raphael Warnock told CNN he wasn’t ready to support any candidate before hearing their case.
Sen.-elect Troy Jackson of Maine reiterated his anti-Schumer stance to The Washington Sun on Monday but didn’t suggest an alternative candidate.
“Don’t know,” Jackson said when asked who he’d back instead. “Haven’t been asked.”
Most Senate Democrats, however, are closing ranks around Schumer after the party’s unexpectedly good results in the midterms. Democrats flipped seven seats, and two other Republican incumbents are trailing in their races in Alaska and Mississippi.
“This caucus is grateful for the hard work of Senator Schumer,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York practically yelled as she emphatically tapped the lectern at Schumer’s news conference. “And that is why you will see, despite all the grumblings, enormous gratitude for the hard work he has done to get us to this position.”
“What have these two ever done to grow the Dem majority to 56 seats?” a Democratic Senate aide told The Washington Sun about Sanders and Slotkin.
Van Hollen, a favorite among progressives who openly admits he’s also considering running for president, said there’s “a growing view” that the leadership election should not be a coronation. But he isn’t openly campaigning for the job. Pressed on whether he and Schumer had discussed the leadership race, Van Hollen said the two had been playing “phone tag” but that he would be pushing Schumer to advance a “bold agenda.”
He also touted his own early endorsement of Michigan’s Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, and took a sharp jab at Schumer for interfering in Democratic primaries.
“We have two members in that room, newly elected senators, who would not be there if Schumer and the DSCC had had their way,” Van Hollen said. “And you know, Schumer and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] sided with the crypto industry and AIPAC against these candidates.”
Van Hollen did not specify which senators-elect he was referring to. But Schumer backed moderates who lost their Senate primaries this year in Michigan and Maine.
A Democratic operative familiar with Senate races this cycle called Van Hollen’s statement “laughable,” noting that the main super PAC aligned with Schumer spent $67 million in support of El-Sayed after he defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, Schumer’s original pick, in the bitter Michigan Democratic primary.
“There are six senators who will be in the room because Schumer got them in or helped early,” the operative said.
A spokesperson for the DSCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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