Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday that he will not support Chuck Schumer as leader of the Senate Democrats in the new Congress, the most prominent break yet in an open fight over the party’s direction after it won back the chamber in last week’s midterm elections.
Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced his position at a news conference at the Capitol alongside Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who said she would not back Schumer either unless he presented a plan that was “definitively different”.
“I personally have known Chuck Schumer for over 30 years, and I like Chuck,” Sanders said. “Nobody who works harder than Chuck Schumer. But in my view, the time is now for change, and I will not be supporting Chuck to be reelected as the Democratic leader.”
Sanders said last week’s elections were “about change” and called for “a vigorous debate about the direction of the Democratic Party”. He predicted Schumer would not run unopposed. Slotkin, who said she is not seeking the leadership post herself, said the party needed a new generation of leadership and wanted any candidate for the job to set out a full programme for the incoming majority first.
Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017 and served as majority leader from 2021, responded shortly afterwards that he remained confident he would be elected majority leader. Democrats will hold at least 54 seats when the 120th Congress convenes in January, with races in Alaska and Mississippi still unresolved.
No senator has formally declared a challenge to Schumer, but Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has come closest to doing so. Van Hollen was among the first to call for an open process to consider a replacement, and he has been promoted as a possible alternative by progressives, including incoming Michigan senator Abdul El-Sayed. Slotkin acknowledged she had spoken with Van Hollen, while stressing she had not endorsed anyone.
The leadership election is expected to be held by secret ballot in early December, before the new Senate is sworn in on 3 January. That secrecy means public statements of support or opposition are only part of the arithmetic, and Schumer’s allies have insisted the caucus remains united behind him.
The row exposes a generational and ideological divide inside a party that only just regained power. Younger and newly elected senators have pressed for a change at the top, arguing that the midterm victory — won in part on anger at the cost of living and at President Donald Trump’s administration — demands a sharper break with the old leadership than Schumer represents. Whether that pressure translates into votes in a secret ballot will decide whether the most senior Democrat in the Senate keeps the job he has held for nearly a decade.
Sources: Associated Press (https://www.kxl.com/bernie-sanders-wont-support-schumer-for-senate-democratic-leader-saying-its-time-for-change/); The Times (https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/chuck-schumer-ousted-democratic-leader-senate-w83t07j8c)
