Do the Dems need new leadership? - Vox
A Schumer challenger has entered the ring.
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Hi readers, happy Friday! Today, we’re saying farewell — for now — to “Democrats in array.” Not quite two weeks after winning the 2026 midterms by a historic margin, the party has a leadership fight on its hands.
On Thursday evening, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, made it official: He’s challenging current Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for the title of majority leader next year, promising a bolder and more aggressive agenda for the party.
“It is about answering the call of the American people,” Van Hollen told MS NOW host Jen Psaki when he announced his candidacy on her show. “The call was really to reject the status quo and to reject business as usual. And to do that, I think we need new leadership.”
Newly elected Democrats Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) and Peggy Flanagan (D-MN), each of whom defeated more leadership-aligned Democrats in their Senate primaries, are backing his bid. But Van Hollen will have an uphill climb to win the job, which is set to be decided in a closed-door vote early next month. Schumer, 75, has led Senate Democrats for nearly a decade, starting in 2017, and says he’s confident he will have the votes to be reelected in December.
The Senate is the only chamber currently dealing with an active leadership fight, but it’s not the only one with some leadership angst. In the House, current Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is the overwhelming favorite to become the new speaker in January (he currently lacks any Democratic challengers). But not everyone is happy about it, as my colleague Astead Herndon reported on Thursday.
The divide, he argues — both in the Schumer-Van Hollen showdown and frustrations with Jeffries — is not really about progressive versus moderate. Instead, he says, it’s about an energized, angry Democratic base looking for fighters to lead the party into what’s almost certain to be a combative final two years of the Trump administration, and a sense that neither Schumer nor Jeffries are ready to meet the moment.
It’s not just a problem for this cycle, either: Democrats won so widely last week that they’re very likely to hang onto their majorities at least through the 2028 election, Eric Levitz points out.
There’s nothing to say that Democrats will have the same leaders in two years (particularly Schumer, who’s up for reelection in 2028 but may either retire or face a serious primary challenge).
But the intra-party debate that we’re watching play out right now is effectively a preview of the higher-stakes fight to come in 2028, when Democrats could also have control of the presidency — and their freest legislative hand since the 2008 election.
As Eric writes, that will come with some real challenges, not least that Democrats currently appear to be facing an impossible trio of economic promises, one of which they’ll likely need to break. But it will also be a moment of opportunity — if the party’s leaders are ready for it.
➨ Science fictional: Vox’s Unexplainable podcast spoke with best-selling author Emily St. John Mandel about her new book, Exit Party, how she uses science to inform her fiction, and why she’s so fascinated with the idea of “counter life,” for people and countries alike. Plus: How she finds hope in Exit Party’s dystopian universe(s). You can read an excerpt of her conversation with Unexplainable host Byrd Pinkerton here.
