Bernie Sanders, a progressive senator from Vermont, said on Tuesday he would not support Chuck Schumer’s bid to serve as the Democratic leader in the US Senate, joining a growing cohort of Democrats calling for a change in leadership.
“I personally have known Chuck Schumer for over 30 years, and I like Chuck. 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 re-elected as the Democratic leader,” Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Sanders, 85, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, pointed to the results of the midterm elections as proof that voters want to see different leaders in charge.
“If this campaign was about anything, it was about change, the need for the Democratic party, in my view, to move in a new and bold direction,” Sanders said.
Speaking at a post-election conference in Washington on Tuesday, Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said voters’ desire for change was clear.
“I think the question is whether those calls are being heard within the walls of the Senate Democratic caucus,” Van Hollen said during a live interview at the conference, convened by the progressive organization Groundwork Collaborative.
Some have pointed to the Maryland senator as a potential successor to Schumer. Van Hollen said he was calling colleagues to gauge their support for leadership change.
While he stopped short of calling for Schumer’s ouster, Van Hollen said the election “should not be coronation”.
“The Senate Democratic caucus needs a little bit of democracy itself in this moment,” he added.
Calls for fresh leadership in the Democratic party have grown louder since 2024, when Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign over concerns about his age. But the party’s sweeping wins in the midterm elections have renewed energy toward enacting change.
Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democratic senator from battleground Michigan, encouraged anyone interested in leading the Democratic caucus to come forward with a plan.
“I think it is very clear that, on election night, the American people voted for change,” she said, noting that she was not actively seeking the Senate majority leadership position.
A group of high-profile incoming Democratic senators have voiced their desire for new leadership.
That includes Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect from Michigan, who beat a Schumer-backed Democrat to win the party’s nomination, as well as Adam Hamilton, the senator-elect from Kansas, Annie Andrews, the senator-elect from South Carolina, Chris Pappas, the senator-elect from New Hampshire, Troy Jackson, the senator-elect from Maine and Peggy Flanagan, the senator-elect from Minnesota.
But so far, no Democrat has volunteered to take on Schumer, who has served as the leader of the Senate Democrats since 2017.
Sanders told reporters he wants Democrats to elect a new leader through a “process” including “vigorous debate”.
Meanwhile, Schumer has remained confident that he will be re-elected Senate majority leader. The New York senator told reporters last week: “I’ll be re-elected as majority leader.”
He reiterated his confidence on Tuesday, telling reporters: “I’m confident I will be elected majority leader, and our caucus is really united in focusing on bringing down costs, on ending the corruption, on ending the chaos, on ending the war.”
“We have great unity in our caucus and I will be proud to lead it as majority leader,” Schumer said in response to Sanders and Slotkin’s announcements.
