Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a progressive favorite to run for majority leader, is keeping the door open to challenging Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for the position, just days after ruling out the possibility.
“The Senator has received an outpouring of calls on running for majority leader and is now in active listening mode,” said a person familiar with the senator’s thinking.
The statement marks a reversal from just after the election, when Van Hollen told a local Fox affiliate that he is focused on whether he can run a viable campaign for president in 2028 and that “I’ve made clear that I’m not looking to be the next Democratic leader.”
On Monday, the source cautioned that “the door is not shut” on a challenge, reflecting the influence of progressive Democrats who believe a contested election may be necessary to steer the caucus to the left next year, when Democrats will have comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate.
Schumer is in a stronger position to stay on as leader after the shocking rout of Republicans last Tuesday, an outcome that flipped at least seven seats, but that election also elected progressive voices who are critical of the minority leader and have promised to oppose him if sent to the Senate.
Among them, Sen.-elect Abdul el Sayed (D-MI) said this week that he would support Van Hollen if he runs in internal leadership elections.
Don’t be fooled. Van Hollen isn’t a progressive. MD is a blue state full of corporate democrats.
That being said, he’s a clear upgrade to Schumer.
Well if he isn’t progressive, that’s tough, because he is near top of the progressive list on the Senate:
Anyway, for the leadership position it isn’t as important that the person is progressive. I think the most people are concerned about Schummer is smell of corruption and just not being overall effective.
The biggest skill required is the ability to pass bills.
Pelosi isn’t progressive in any meaning of that word, but she is considered one of best speakers in the US history. That was because she was able to pass a lot of bills.
I don’t think Schummer has these skills and he feels like he might backstab us. That’s IMO is the biggest concern.
he made it clearly earlier on hes Israel first and foremost, and has not budged from that position at all.
i can see Schumer suddenly doing a Fetterman if he loses.
You mean he would support netanyahu’s political career over the American people and capitulate to fascists at every opportunity?
I mean, I guess we’d still be able to tell because he’d no longer be writing strongly worded letters.
fetterman recently said he would endorse him to be the majority leader again.
Damn, I did not know that. At this point a Fetterman endorsement is almost as much of a reverse Midas as a Trump endorsement.
I don’t use Google, so that link can stay blue. He does not care about the everyday person. He was forced to when someone finally challenged his senate seat. MD dems are akin to republicans from the 90s.
If Van Hollen runs for Senate Majority Leader, he can kiss his presidential run goodbye.
I’d say go with Leeja Miller’s suggestion of Elizabeth Warren for Senate Majority Leader.
Good riddance then. The only reason he changed his tune when campaigning for his seat again was because a grassroots candidate who was actually for the people got quite a lot of support.
The only thing good I’ve seen him do was advocate for Kilmar. And even then, his statement about why he was doing it soured my opinion quite a bit.
I’m all for Van Hohenheim replacing Shumer.
Shou Tucker should replace RFK in 2yr.
Shou would be great, he’s a hard working intelligent scientist, and he’s clearly a family man with that child and dog of his.
