Chuck Schumer is confident he will continue to lead Senate Democrats after they won a majority in spectacular fashion on Tuesday. Not all Democrats are so sure.
At a post-election rally Saturday in Washington, D.C., two Senate Democrats — Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan — declined to support Schumer for the job, and Slotkin said she wouldn’t rule out running herself. A third Senate Democrat at the conference, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, said he planned to support Schumer but echoed calls for Senate Democrats “to do things differently than we’ve done before.”
“There should be no coronation of the next Democratic leader,” Van Hollen said. “I’ve been very clear that we need to have a discussion within the Democratic caucus, we need to understand what Democrats are going to do with this new responsibility and these new powers, and no one should be given a blank check without a full understanding of where we’re going to go in the caucus.”
Van Hollen said he urged his Democratic colleagues to “hold back their commitments” until Schumer lays out his vision. And Slotkin said Democrats should not grant Schumer a quorum — the minimum presence required to conduct Senate business — until he addresses their concerns.
Schumer remains one of the big favorites to become majority leader. He has no declared opposition and only needs to secure majority support from Senate Democrats, whose ranks are expected to grow to at least 54 seats after Tuesday’s elections.
But Saturday’s comments showed how even Democrats’ resounding victories in the midterms could not mask their long-standing disagreements over who is best suited to lead them. This debate could be particularly intense among Senate Democrats considering a run for president in 2028, a group that includes Van Hollen, Slotkin and Kelly.
In addition to reservations among returning Senate Democrats, several new freshmen have vowed not to support Schumer for party leader or at least withheld their support for now. Scott Colom, the Democrat in a Senate race in Mississippi that remains too close to call, was also noncommittal about Schumer, calling for greater geographic diversity in the party’s leadership.
In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Schumer said he did not expect to encounter opposition.
“Our caucus is focused on moving forward,” Schumer told the newspaper’s “The Daily” podcast. “Everyone is very happy with what we did.”
Several Democratic senators have already said that Schumer has earned his right to return to their leadership post after the better-than-expected Senate election results. Kelly added her name to that list on Saturday.
“Chuck worked really hard to get this majority, so my plan is to support him,” Kelly told reporters after his appearance at the post-midterm summit, Crooked Con.
Slotkin struck a different tone when addressing the conference, which booed and jeered at the mention of Schumer’s name throughout the day.
“If he wants to be majority leader, what is your plan for the first 100 days? she said. “How are you going to do things differently to get Democrats to get their act together? If you can’t produce that, I won’t vote for you.”
Asked if she would run for the top job, Slotkin said it’s “an open field, and I think those conversations are happening quickly.”
“I’m not ruling anything out,” she said.
Van Hollen, for his part, suggested he was unlikely to run, although at least one freshman — Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed — said he could support him. Van Hollen told CNN on Saturday that running for House leader was “not my goal” and that he was instead considering a 2028 presidential campaign. He said he hadn’t heard from Schumer “directly” since the midterms, but planned to speak with her in the coming week.
Slotkin, who has long called for a “new generation of leadership,” said she hopes incoming freshmen will follow the example she set during her first House run in 2018. She campaigned on a promise not to support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House — and followed through when she voted present in the January 2019 speaker election.
“These people who have just won in difficult times, I think, will have a hard time, both as leaders but also as politicians, going back on their word as the first thing they do,” she said.
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