Democrats haven’t even taken over the Senate yet, and they’re already fighting over who runs it. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland says he’ll challenge Chuck Schumer to be majority leader when the new Congress starts in January. “To deliver, we need new leadership,” Van Hollen wrote Thursday, CBS News reported.
Schumer says he isn’t going anywhere. “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,” he posted. Senate Democrats are expected to pick their leaders early next month.
Why is Van Hollen challenging Schumer?
He says voters asked for change, and he means it on two fronts. The first is the Iran war. Van Hollen says Schumer hasn’t been willing to use Congress’s control of the money to force an end to it. He wants Democrats to use the next government funding deadline, Dec. 11, as leverage. It “should not be a finger-in-the-wind issue,” he said on MS NOW.
The second is how Schumer ran the campaign. Van Hollen says Schumer worked behind the scenes in Democratic primaries, and that two of the party’s new senators, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, “wouldn’t be there if the current majority leader had his way.” Van Hollen, 67, admits he’s the underdog but says the race is “very much in flux.”
Who is backing Van Hollen, and who is sticking with Schumer?
Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed Van Hollen Thursday night, two days after saying he wouldn’t support Schumer. Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, a moderate, has also called for new leadership. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan isn’t backing anyone yet but says she’s “a no until and unless” someone shows her a plan that’s “definitively different.”
On Schumer’s side, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada endorsed him, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who ran the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm, defended him earlier in the week. Schumer, 75, has led Senate Democrats since 2017. Many on the left are still angry that he helped avoid a shutdown in early 2025 instead of using it to fight Trump.
Why does this fight matter to you?
Whoever leads the Senate decides what gets a vote. That includes the funding bill due Dec. 11, and with it whether there’s a government shutdown right before the holidays. A leader who wants to use that deadline to force an end to the Iran war is promising a much tougher fight with the White House than one who doesn’t.
It also tells you what Democrats think won them the election. Candidates like Scott Colom in Mississippi ran hard on prices and the war, and the party’s new senators lean more anti-establishment than its old ones. Republicans are going through their own reset after picking Jim Jordan as House leader.
The BeezLoop Take
Van Hollen has a point. Democrats won a wave election on prices and the war, and the man who’d lead the new majority is the same leader voters already knew. Asking whether he’s the right person to deliver on that isn’t disloyal.
But Democrats should be careful what they wish for. A shutdown fight in December might feel good, and it might hurt the same working families who just voted for them. Van Hollen owes people a clear plan for what happens if the White House doesn’t blink.
The open question: is this a real shot at replacing Schumer, or a way for the left to make him promise a harder line on Iran?
Sources: CBS News · WJZ (video)
