Van Hollen challenges Schumer for Senate Democratic leader as party weighs its path against Trump

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced on Thursday that he will challenge Chuck Schumer for the leadership of Senate Democrats, staging the party's first major test of unity since its sweeping wins in last week's midterm elections. The outcome will be decided at a closed-door caucus meeting on 1 December, before the party takes control of the chamber next year.

The winner will hold one of the most powerful jobs in Washington. Democratic officeholders and voters have been divided since Donald Trump returned to the White House over whether Schumer is up to the task of confronting him, and the contest now forces the party to weigh two veteran lawmakers' differing visions for using its expanded power, including on divisive questions such as aid to Israel.

Speaking on Friday, Van Hollen framed his bid as a break from the party's recent past. "Trump's policies have been fired, but we are still in the position where we need to take advantage of this opportunity," he said. "And I don't think you can close the trust deficit by simply returning to the status quo."

Progressive groups have cheered the 67-year-old's candidacy, and he has picked up endorsements from Bernie Sanders, the independent who caucuses with Democrats, and incoming senators Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota. Several others, including Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, incoming senator Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Juliana Stratton of Illinois, have called for a new leader without naming a preferred candidate. Van Hollen has described himself as an "underdog."

Schumer, 75, has projected confidence and drawn endorsements from senators across the party's ideological spectrum. "I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead," he wrote on X. "I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader." A New York City native, Schumer won a House seat in 1980 and a Senate seat in 1998, became the top Senate Democrat in 2017 and served as majority leader under Joe Biden, passing parts of Biden's agenda with a caucus so small it could not lose a single vote on party-line bills.

Doubts about Schumer erupted in March 2025, when he advanced a Republican-backed spending measure rather than risk a government shutdown, despite many Democrats arguing the party had leverage to win concessions. The move infuriated House Democrats and activists. "With our democracy on the line, he let us, the country and the Democratic party down," said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the Indivisible network, adding: "Senator Schumer should step aside as leader." Later that year, dissident Senate Democrats ended a record-long shutdown without Republicans meeting any of their healthcare demands, in a deal Schumer did not publicly endorse but was widely believed to back. By the 2026 primaries, several candidates were making opposition to him part of their platforms.

The tension partly reflects the Senate's rules. While the minority party in the House can do little to block legislation, the filibuster's 60-vote threshold makes the Democratic leader central to deciding whether the party cooperates with the 53 Republicans currently in the majority or obstructs them.

As Schumer's standing frayed, Van Hollen's rose. Elected to the Senate in 2016, he drew national attention by traveling to El Salvador to meet Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian wrongfully deported from Maryland early in Trump's mass deportation campaign. He has also become a prominent Democratic critic of Israel: he voted against providing bulldozers and bombs to the country, co-released a report after a 2025 visit to the border between Gaza and Egypt accusing Israel of planning to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and in September led an unsuccessful resolution to force the state department to report on West Bank violence. Schumer's criticism has been more muted; he opposed cutting off arms sales but backed Van Hollen's resolution, and in 2024, as the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US government, he called on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step aside.

Last week's results, in which Democrats won just about every state they contested and some where they invested few resources, might appear to vindicate Schumer. Van Hollen, who had been discussed as a possible 2028 presidential candidate and initially ruled out a challenge, counters that several candidates Schumer backed in primaries were rejected by voters. Activists want more: "Our members are tired of politicians content with incrementalism," said Joel Payne, executive director of MoveOn. Schumer's allies point to the scoreboard. "Why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?" asked Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats.