Calls To End Schumer’s Reign Grow Louder but Viable Challengers Fail To Materialize

Millions of dollars couldn’t buy Senator Chuck Schumer a few kind words from the candidates he funded ahead of Election Day, and by the end of the week, everyone from incoming progressive lawmakers to Jon Stewart and podcaster Jennifer Welch was calling to end the Democrat’s tenure. But while the complaints rolled in, the list of potential alternatives has only shrunk.On Friday, Maine’s senator-elect, Troy Jackson, told reporters he’s still as committed to voting against Mr. Schumer as he was before the election. “I’ve already said, I told Senator Schumer I’m going to support somebody else, so that’s no different now,” Mr. Jackson said.The presumptive Senate majority leader poured $3 million into Mr. Jackson’s coffers during the final sprint, according to Politico, after Mr. Schumer’s original choice for the job lost in the primary to Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race after an ex-girlfirend came forward with a rape allegation. In a CNN appearance the day before Mr. Jackson’s remarks, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, whose campaign in Michigan received as much as $67 million from the fundraising behemoth that Mr. Schumer controls, threw his support behind Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland for the leadership job, saying he would be “amazing” in the role.But Mr. Van Hollen is not running, an unidentified member of his team told NewsNation the same day. Mr. Van Hollen himself has said he’s “kicking the tires” on a possible run for the White House in 2028, which would keep him too busy to lead the Senate.Also Thursday, comedian Jon Stewart used his podcast, The Weekly Show, to demand that Mr. Schumer step aside so the party could “tear down the obstacles and old way of thinking that got us into this mess.” Liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch similarly said she would “never forgive” Mr. Schumer for “what he did to Angie Nixon,” a far-left Senate candidate in Florida whom Mr. Schumer declined to support.Meanwhile, South Carolina winner Annie Andrews called for “generational change” on both sides of the aisle during an appearance on Fox News. Dr. Andrews received at least $750,000 from the same pot as Dr. El-Sayed, the Senate Majority PAC, just one week before Election Day for her race to remove Darlene Graham from the seat she inherited following the passing of her brother Lindsey. Other incoming senators, including Juliana Stratton of Illinois; Adam Hamilton of Kansas; Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota; and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, have also said publicly they won’t back Mr. Schumer. Ms. Stratton said in an interview in March that her constituents were “fed up with what’s happening in Washington” and looking for lawmakers who would “stand up and fight.”One of the main shifts the left is calling for is a hard pivot away from the wars in Iran and Gaza, Democratic activist and former congressional candidate Cameron Kasky told The New York Sun. Mr. Kasky, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting who got his start in politics by organizing for gun reform, knows a thing or two about being disappointed by lawmakers.“Schumer is somebody who understands how politics and power work, but he’s just out of touch. He doesn’t understand what the American people want, and I don’t think that he is operating with any regard for international humanitarian law, and Americans want that,” Mr. Kasky said. “They want somebody like Van Hollen. They want somebody like Chris Murphy.” But Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut suffered a stroke at the end of October and announced Friday that he will miss several votes as he undergoes weeks of rehabilitation. Regardless of whether he was planning to challenge Mr. Schumer, his health issues have effectively removed him from the running for majority leader when senators cast their ballots behind closed doors in the coming weeks. Prior to his health emergency, Mr. Murphy won points with progressives by denouncing President Trump’s justification for the Iran war as “totally incoherent,” and voicing objections to Israel’s actions in Gaza. On the Senate floor in August, he called the ally “not aligned” with U.S. national security objectives.Mr. Kasky abandoned his campaign to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District in January, when he became a communications adviser to Congressman Ro Khanna, a frequent critic of Mr. Schumer.Mr. Kasky gave Mr. Schumer credit for “trying to expand the [Democratic] tent to include more moderate Republicans and independents.” However, “he’s not putting in the effort to reach out to the left in a substantive way that reaches people.”Despite that, and the anger coming toward him from left-wing senators-elect, Mr. Schumer still has enough votes — a simple majority of the chamber’s 54 or more Democrats — to reclaim his leadership position. The confidential nature of the ballot also means that senators are free to talk one way and vote another, according to lawmakers who have been through the process.“I think Chris Van Hollen was the only one who theoretically could have put together a viable coalition, but he took himself out of the running,” pollster Adam Carlson, founder of Zenith Polls, told the Sun.Counter to all the El-Sayeds, Jacksons, and Andrews distancing themselves from Mr. Schumer, he is “carrying some unusually strong goodwill from his very successful recruiting efforts this cycle,” according to Mr. Carlson. Mr. Schumer had a hand in the recruitment drives that flipped North Carolina with Roy Cooper and Ohio with Sherrod Brown. He appears on track to do the same in Alaska with Mary Peltola and Mississippi with Scott Colom.“I also happen to think this will be his swan song before he retires in 2028,” Mr. Carlson said.

Calls To End Schumer’s Reign Grow Louder but Viable Challengers Fail To Materialize

Calls To End Schumer’s Reign Grow Louder but Viable Challengers Fail To Materialize

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