Despite voting to block the government funding deal that is now poised to pass the House this week, Senator Chuck Schumer is not being spared by the liberal base of his party. The minority leader’s approval rating is already plummeting as the threat of a primary challenge in 2028 looms over his head. 

The Senate passed a funding agreement on Monday night, after lawmakers cleared a procedural hurdle less than 24 hours before. The only victories for Democrats in the package include a moratorium on federal firings, a guarantee of backpay and re-hirings for those who have already been fired, and a promise that they will hold a vote on extending health insurance subsidies by December. 

Compared to Mr. Schumer’s stated goal at the start of the shutdown — that the insurance subsidies be extended as a part of the deal — Democrats have gotten next to nothing. The base of the party is well aware of that fact. 

Several members of Congress and major Democratic Party organizations are calling on Mr. Schumer to step down as leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus. 

Congressman Ro Khanna accused Mr. Schumer of giving the green light to the funding deal, despite the fact that the New York senator himself voted against it. 

“He’s the leader of the Senate [Democrats]. This deal would never have happened if he had not blessed it,” Mr. Khanna told CBS News, mentioning that other Democratic senators have said Mr. Schumer was aware of the negotiations as they were going on. “He’s not meeting the moment. He’s out-of-touch with where the party’s base is,” Mr. Khanna added, calling on Mr. Schumer to step aside. 

“Sen. Schumer has failed to meet this moment and is out of touch with the American people. The Democratic Party needs leaders who fight and deliver for working people,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote on X Monday. “Schumer should step down.”

The liberal organizing group MoveOn, which was founded originally to fight the impeachment effort against President Clinton, also called on Mr. Schumer to step aside on Monday.

Americans showed a growing surge of support for Democrats who fought back — both at the ballot box last week and peacefully in the streets last month,” the organization said in a statement. “Inexplicably, some Senate Democrats, under Leader Schumer’s watch, decided to surrender. It is time for Senator Schumer to step aside as minority leader to make room for those who are willing to fight fire with fire.”

Another, larger group — Indivisible — is going farther than just calling on Mr. Schumer to step down as Senate Democratic leader. Rather, they are actively recruiting and funding Senate candidates in 2026 and beyond to create a more liberal majority in the upper chamber. One of Indivisible’s demands is that their candidates commit to ousting Mr. Schumer as leader. 

“Our democracy is facing an existential threat. We need leaders with backbone and conviction – not timidity and excuses,” the co-founder of Indivisible, Leah Greenberg, said in a statement. “Democrats can’t defeat authoritarianism by running from the fight. It’s in our hands to make sure those who can’t fight make space for the leaders who can.”

Recent polling shows that Mr. Schumer’s shutdown fight has won him few friends. In March, after he and other Senate Democrats voted to advance a clean funding bill, his popularity among Democrats cratered. One Republican colleague likened Mr. Schumer to a venereal disease when it came to his popularity. 

The shutdown did little to move those numbers. 

According to the Harvard–Harris poll which was conducted between November 4 and 6, Mr. Schumer’s favorable rating stands at just 26 percent among all respondents, with 40 percent having an unfavorable view of him. 

Among Democrats, the numbers are particularly bleak. Only 42 percent of his fellow Democrats view him favorably, compared to 24 percent who hold an unfavorable view. 

The Harvard–Harris survey conducted a review of the favorable and unfavorable ratings of more than a dozen major political figures, both here in America and abroad. The only two people with net favorable ratings worse than Mr. Schumer were Governor Andrew Cuomo and Russia’s President Putin.