Schumer's relationship with the party base has not recovered

Van Hollen and Schumer differ on Israel in their Senate records

Chris Van Hollen has joined in criticizing Israel, amid a wider backlash among Democratic voters toward the US ally fueled by accusations it committed a genocide in Gaza. Van Hollen voted against providing bulldozers and bombs to Israel, and after a visit to the Gaza-Egypt border in 2025, co-released a report accusing Israel of planning to ethnically cleanse the territory. In September, Van Hollen led an unsuccessful resolution to force the state department to issue a report on violence in the West Bank.

Schumer’s criticism of Israel has been comparatively muted. He did not vote for efforts to cut off arm sales, but did support Van Hollen’s resolution on the state department report. As majority leader in 2024, when he was the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US government, Schumer called on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to step aside.

Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Democratic officeholders and voters alike have been divided over whether their leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is up to the task of taking the president on. The relationship between Schumer and the party base — including some Democratic lawmakers — has yet to recover.

Trump returned to power in 2025, and it was not long after that Schumer’s leadership came into question. In March of that year, facing a deadline to approve new government funding or cause a shutdown, many Democrats believed they had leverage over Trump to win concessions — perhaps over the gutting of the federal government by the “department of government efficiency”. Schumer instead advanced a GOP-backed spending measure, arguing it was a bad time to shut down the government.

The compromise triggered an explosion of anger at Schumer, both from Democrats in the House of Representatives who had rejected the funding compromise and from activist groups who saw it as a sign that Schumer was no longer fit to be leader. Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the Indivisible network of progressive groups, called for Schumer to relinquish the post. “Senator Schumer has contributed to and led many important accomplishments that Indivisible is grateful for. But with our democracy on the line, he let us, the country and the Democratic party down,” Levin said. “Senator Schumer should step aside as leader. Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately.”

Another wave of calls for Schumer to step down arrived later that year, when some Senate Democrats ended a record-long government shutdown without Republicans meeting any of their demands on healthcare. Schumer did not publicly endorse their deal, but it was widely believed to have his backing. By the time campaigning for the 2026 midterms began, several candidates were making their opposition to him prominent in their platforms.

The leadership debate intensified on Thursday, when the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen announced he will challenge Schumer for the post of Democratic Senate leader, which will become one of the most powerful jobs in Washington when the party takes control of Congress’s upper chamber next year. The contest is the party’s first major test of unity after its triumph in last week’s midterm elections, in which voters gave Democrats their biggest majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives in years. The two veteran lawmakers differ over how to use that newly expanded power to confront Donald Trump, advance the party’s agenda and address divisive issues such as aid to Israel.

Progressive groups have cheered Van Hollen’s candidacy, and he picked up a handful of endorsements within hours of making his bid official. His prospects are unclear: Van Hollen, 67, acknowledged his position in the race, calling himself an “underdog” in the contest, which is set to be decided at a behind-closed-doors caucus meeting on 1 December.

“Trump’s policies have been fired, but we are still in the position where we need to take advantage of this opportunity. So that does mean closing the trust deficit? … And I don’t think you can close the trust deficit by simply returning to the status quo,” Van Hollen said in a speech on Friday.

Schumer struck a confident tone after the challenge became official. “I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead,” Schumer, 75, wrote on X. “I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader.” Schumer has expressed confidence he will win the Democratic caucus’s nod again, and has already been endorsed by senators from across the party’s ideological spectrum.

Schumer, a New York City native, won election to the House in 1980 and to the Senate in 1998. He became the top Senate Democrat in 2017, when the party was in the minority at the start of Trump’s first term, and became majority leader in 2021 under Joe Biden, passing parts of Biden’s agenda with a caucus small enough that it could not lose a single vote on party-line bills.

At the same time that Schumer’s standing among Democrats was growing rocky, Van Hollen’s star was ascending. Elected to the Senate from the House in 2016, he made national news when he traveled to El Salvador to meet Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran who had been wrongfully deported from Maryland in the early days of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Last week’s midterm sweep could be read as vindication of Schumer’s leadership: the party won just about every state it was contesting, including some where it had invested few resources. Van Hollen argued Schumer could have done better, noting that several candidates he backed in the primaries were rejected by voters.

A small number of Democratic senators have publicly backed Van Hollen since he announced his leadership bid, including Bernie Sanders, the independent progressive who caucuses with the party, and incoming senators Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota. Others, including Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, incoming senator Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Juliana Stratton of Illinois, said the party should choose a new leader without naming one.

Joel Payne, executive director of the liberal group MoveOn, said members of his organization want a change of approach. “Our members are tired of politicians content with incrementalism – they want bold, creative leadership that will help Democrats usher in affordability and accountability without delay or compromise in the next Congress,” Payne said. “We welcome and will support any potential Senate leader willing to meet the moment.”

Schumer retains considerable sway and has been endorsed by progressive and moderate senators alike. Those who have backed him argue he has been effective, and point to last week’s results as proof. “Why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?” asked Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats and has endorsed Schumer.

There had been talk of Van Hollen running for president in 2028, and he had initially said he would not challenge Schumer to lead the Senate Democrats. Activist groups reacted to his reversal with another wave of calls for the party to find a new Senate leader to take them into the majority next year.

The stakes of the vote are structural. In the House, the party out of power has few tools to block legislation; in the Senate, the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold makes the Democratic leader a central figure in deciding whether the party cooperates with the 53 Republicans in the majority or obstructs them.