Chuck Schumer Faces Senate Majority Challenger as Van Hollen Enters Race - Newsweek

Maryland U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said Thursday that he will run for Senate majority leader in the next Congress, setting up a challenge against Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer after the party swept to power in the midterm elections.

Van Hollen's announcement Thursday makes him the first to challenge New York's Schumer.

“In this election, the American people called for change,” Maryland's Van Hollen said in a statement. He argued that voters rejected President Donald Trump’s policies and that “the status quo that isn’t working for working people.”

Democrats need new leadership to answer voters’ demands, said Van Hollen, who has served in the Senate since 2017 and spent 14 years in the House.

He called this moment following the midterm victory “a generational opportunity for the Senate to respond to the call of the American people for change."

Pressure for a challenge to Schumer had been building since Election Day.

Former presidential candidate and progressive Senator Bernie Sanders is among the highest-profile voices criticizing the New York lawmaker's direction.

"The American people voted for change. They want a Democratic Party that will stand up to powerful special interests, take on the billionaire class and fight for working families. That is why I am supporting Senator Chris Van Hollen to lead Senate Democrats," Sanders wrote on X Thursday.

Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed has repeatedly said he would support Van Hollen for the majority leader role. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal also said he was open to new leadership if a challenger stepped forward.

Schumer has said he expects to keep his job and declined to directly answer a question about whether he has spoken to Van Hollen since he began mulling a challenge.

Earlier this week, he told reporters, “I’ll be reelected as majority leader.”

He said Thursday that he welcomes discussion on the future of the caucus.

"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 said in a statement. "I look forward to leading our new Democratic majority and delivering for the American people.”

His allies point to the midterm results. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who ran Senate Democrats’ campaign arm this cycle, said that Schumer not only won the Senate back but he “cares deeply, and he understands politics well."

“The Brewers just had a record season, and next year is not the time to change our management. The same is true in the Senate. Under Leader Schumer, Democrats won at least 55 seats. He earned his position as Majority Leader next Congress, and together we’ll deliver for Wisconsin families," Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, wrote on X.

Senate Democrats will likely hold elections, conducted by secret ballot, next month. The winner needs a simple majority of the Democratic caucus, or at least 28 votes.

Republicans pounced on the division.

“This leadership brawl previews the D.C. Democrats’ agenda: chaos, infighting, and a race to see who can sell their soul to the far left fastest. Whoever is the winner gets to lead the charge to open our borders, shred our Constitution, and treat taxpayers like bottomless ATMs," Republican National Committee National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre wrote on X.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Edward T. Cummins