USAupdated 28m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 6 April 2017Chris Van Hollen Challenges Chuck Schumer for Senate Democratic Leadership
4 Western Mainstream2 Other2 West Asian1 Latin AmericanPhoto: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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Chris Van Hollen announces bid to become Senate Majority Leader challenging Chuck Schumer. He says voters asked for change after midterm election victories.
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Leadership fight after midterms
Democrats’ sweeping US midterm victory has triggered demands for a new direction inside the party as established congressional leadership prepares to take power in January and decide who will lead them in the 120th Congress.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced that he will challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer for Senate Democratic leadership, saying in a statement that “the American people asked for change.”
Schumer, who has led the Democratic caucus since 2017, told The Associated Press in an interview last week, “I’m going to win,” and he said he has the votes to remain Democratic leader.
The leadership vote will be held behind closed doors and by secret ballot in early December, and the contest is described as the first contested leadership election for Democrats in decades.
CNN framed the showdown as a potential fracture of post-election unity, with Van Hollen arguing on MS Now that the result reflected a deeper call “to reject the status quo and to reject business as usual.”
Sanders, Slotkin, and pressure
Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday that he “will not be supporting Chuck to be reelected as the Democratic leader,” while also telling the party he “like[s] Chuck” and that “Nobody … works harder than Chuck Schumer.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin added that “We need a new generation of leadership … Senator Sanders and I disagree on some items, but we agree on the need for change.”
Independent Sen. Abdul El-Sayed backed Van Hollen and told CNN that “I think now is the time to think about new leadership,” while also describing what Michigan voters asked for as “money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All.”
Schumer’s supporters and critics both pointed to the same midterm outcome, with El-Sayed saying Schumer helped “architect the majority that we are going to enjoy in the next two years,” even as he argued “this moment calls for a different kind of leadership.”
The dispute also tied to Israel and the US war with Iran, with Anadolu Ajansı quoting political analyst David Cay Johnston saying progressives have signaled they will not necessarily block more moderate leaders and that Schumer has “been very effective internally in doing the job of a minority leader.”
What the vote decides next
The leadership election will decide who leads the new Democratic majority in the Senate for the last two years of Donald Trump’s term, with the outcome shaping the party’s control of the upper chamber’s agenda and the confirmation of the president’s nominees. El País reported that Schumer has the advantage because he recruited many of the Democratic candidates who won their seats in November and raised funds for them, while also noting that Van Hollen will have to erode that base in “just a few weeks.” Van Hollen said he is running “This isn’t about any one person, but about answering the call of the American people,” and he framed the contest as a response to the midterm result.
“Why fire the manager when you just won the World Series?”
Schumer responded on social media by welcoming “any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead,” and he said he was “proud of what we’ve achieved together — 55 seats and counting.” The Mirror US en Español quoted Angus King asking, “Why fire the manager when you just won the World Series?” while also asserting, “Chuck Schumer is one of the architects of the most successful elections in modern history.”