Van Hollen Challenges Schumer for Majority Leader, but Schumer Says ‘I Have the Votes’

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Thursday night that he will challenge Chuck Schumer for Senate majority leader, opening a leadership fight inside the party a week after Democrats won control of the Senate.

“It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership. This is not about any one person — it’s about answering the call of the American people,” Van Hollen said in a statement from his office.

In a post on X, he framed the bid around an economy he called “rigged against working people” and “fueled by political corruption,” CBS News reported.

Schumer answered within hours. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together—55 seats and counting is an amazing result—and I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader,” the New Yorker wrote on X, NBC News reported.

Van Hollen, 67, admitted he starts behind. “I’m the underdog,” he said in an interview with MS NOW, adding that more than 10 senators have pledged to support him and that colleagues now “have to decide whether they want to vote for change or whether they want to vote for the status quo.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who had already said he would not back Schumer, endorsed Van Hollen that night. Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed also signed on, saying Democrats “will require bold leadership,” NBC News said.

Iran War and Primaries at the Center

Van Hollen says he would use every tool to end the Iran war, starting with the Dec. 11 government funding deadline. He told host Jen Psaki that leverage “should not be a finger-in-the-wind issue,” according to CBS News.

He also faulted Schumer for picking sides in Democratic primaries. “We have two senators right now in the United States Senate who wouldn’t be there if the current majority leader had his way,” Van Hollen said, pointing to El-Sayed and Minnesota Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan.

Schumer, 75, has led Senate Democrats since 2017 and is still favored. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) defended him in a statement: “Why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?” NBC News reported.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) also endorsed Schumer late Thursday, while Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has said she is “a no until and unless” someone shows her a plan that is “definitively different,” CBS News reported. Slotkin and Sanders said earlier this week they would not back Schumer, as CDN reported.

The pressure from the left is not only coming from senators. Dozens of Sunrise Movement protesters were arrested Thursday after a sit-in at Schumer’s Washington office demanding new leadership and an end to the filibuster, The Guardian reported.

Senate Democrats will choose their leader in a closed-door vote in early December, and a simple majority of the caucus wins, NBC News said. The New York Times noted that the challenge comes just as Democrats were planning their takeover of Congress in January.

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