WaPo (“Van Hollen will challenge Schumer to lead Senate Democrats“):
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said Thursday that he is challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) to be majority leader in the next Congress, triggering an internal power struggle barely a week after Democrats recaptured the Senate in the midterm elections.
Van Hollen’s move will test support for Schumer among Senate Democrats more than a year after Schumer angered many activists who wanted him to fight harder against President Donald Trump.
In an interview, Van Hollen acknowledged that defeating Schumer would be an uphill fight but said the election results demanded the party take a new direction.
“The voters called for big change, and this is a time that we have to deliver for people across the country,” Van Hollen said.
Schumer has led Senate Democrats for the past decade and played a crucial role in helping the party win back the Senate. But he is unpopular with much of the Democratic base, and several Democratic senators have called for new leadership in recent days or said they could not support Schumer.
Two outspoken progressives, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Michigan), endorsed Van Hollen on Thursday night.
“The American people voted for change,” Sanders wrote on X. “They want a Democratic Party that will stand up to powerful special interests, take on the billionaire class and fight for working families.”
The winner of the Dec. 1 closed-door election will preside over the largest Democratic Senate majority since the Obama administration, with Democrats set to hold as many as 56 seats. Democrats have already started discussing how to pass an ambitious legislative agenda and hold Trump accountable by blocking his nominees and investigating his administration.
Van Hollen, 67, spent 14 years in the House representing a district in the Washington suburbs before he was elected to the Senate in 2016. Once an insider in House Democratic leadership, he has become much more progressive in recent years.
Van Hollen called for new leadership in the Senate after the midterms but said last week that he was looking at running for president in 2028 rather than challenging Schumer. He shifted course in recent days as progressive groups and some newly elected Democratic senators urged him to consider it, he said.
NYT (“Van Hollen Says He Will Challenge Schumer for Senate Majority Leader“) adds:
Making his announcement in an interview on MS Now on Thursday evening, Mr. Van Hollen said his challenge to Mr. Schumer was “not about any one individual.” Instead, he said, it was to ensure that Democrats answered “the call of the American people” in the midterm elections, which he said was to “bring down costs” and end the war against Iran.
He said he had spoken to a large number of Democratic senators, including the incoming members, and did not believe that Mr. Schumer had a lock on the race, saying he had “more than 10” of the 55 Democratic senators and senators-elect behind him.
“Am I the underdog?” he said. “Yes.”
Mr. Van Hollen, who is also said to be weighing a run for president in 2028, had emerged as the favorite to challenge Mr. Schumer for the post and had expressed increasing willingness to do so in recent days.
[…]
On Thursday night, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, who during his campaign called on Mr. Van Hollen to seek the post, greeted his announcement enthusiastically, saying he was “proud” to endorse him as majority leader.
“Last week, Michiganders rejected the failed status quo and the politics that too often leaves families behind,” Mr. El-Sayed said in a statement. “But we need to earn our mandate. That demands new leadership.”
Senate Democrats are scheduled to vote behind closed doors on Dec. 1 to determine who will be their leader when their party takes the Senate majority on Jan. 4.
In a statement, Mr. Schumer said that he welcomed “a discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead,” but had enough commitments of support from Senate Democrats to be re-elected as leader.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together — 55 seats and counting is an amazing result,” he said, adding: “I look forward to leading our new Democratic majority and delivering for the American people.”
Mr. Schumer oversaw the Senate Democratic campaign effort that has flipped at least eight seats, with the Democrat Scott Colom on Wednesday called as the winner in the Mississippi Senate race. The Alaska Senate race result has not been called, but the Democrat Mary Peltola is slightly ahead there.
Despite that success, some in the ranks of Senate Democrats have called for a broad discussion of party leadership going forward and a debate over the agenda the party should pursue.
Other Democrats say that the leadership fight is distracting from the stunning victory Democrats recorded on Nov. 3 and hurting their preparation for January.
“We were at 47-53 and now we are at 55, 56,” said Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a strong supporter of Mr. Schumer. He added: “I don’t understand why that’s a conversation.”
On Thursday night, Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, said he welcomed a conversation “about the path ahead,” but urged his colleagues not to draw out that process. He endorsed Mr. Schumer, whom he credited with leading the party to victory.
“We must move quickly to vote, unify, and get to work,” Mr. Schatz said.
Senator Angus King of Maine, the other independent who caucuses with Democrats, also threw his support behind Mr. Schumer in a statement, crediting him with engineering a historically successful election result.
There is certainly room for criticism of Schumer’s leadership, although much of it amounts to magical thinking. While the Senate minority can wield the filibuster to stop legislation, there’s very little it can do to stop an administration acting mostly through executive fiat.
I’m also in rare agreement with Fetterman. While a variety of factors, including the own-goal of the war with Iran, weighed down Republicans, Schumer helped orchestrate the most stunning midterm success in over half a century. That he would be rewarded by being ousted from his leadership post brings to mind Winston Churchill being voted out of office just weeks after leading his country to victory in World War II.
Further, while I have no insight into the inner workings of the Senate Democratic caucus, a 67-year-old of little national renown strikes me as an odd candidate for this challenge. He’s hardly a shining star, much less a generational change. Of course, this is a man who thinks he’s somehow a viable candidate for the presidency.
