Progressive US senator calling for more inclusion within Democratic caucus cites openness to change among peers
Democratic US senator Chris Van Hollen on Sunday escalated his bid to lead his party’s incoming Senate majority rather than Chuck Schumer, asserting that he has a path to victory amid a dedicated campaign that includes a series of television appearances.
Van Hollen, a Maryland progressive, appeared on Sunday on CNN, ABC and Fox News as he continues to make his case for why his peers in the Senate should reject Schumer, who has led the Democratic caucus for nearly a decade.
On CNN’s State of the Union, he reaffirmed that he believes he has a path to victory, citing support and a widespread openness to change within the Senate Democratic caucus.
“This really is a response to the call of the voters, who clearly rejected Donald Trump and his awful policies, but they haven’t fully hired the Democrats,” Van Hollen said, alluding to how the US president’s Republican party lost control of Congress during the 3 November midterm elections.
“They’ve given us a chance, and I think we need to earn their trust. And I think that begins by not going back to business as usual.”
Van Hollen criticized reports that Schumer’s team may move the Senate caucus leadership election date earlier than 1 December. He contended that the caucus should have a debate about the group’s direction as the Democrats assume control of Congress in January for the latter half of Trump’s second presidency.
Van Hollen also responded to a list that was reportedly leaked by Schumer’s team to the political news outlet the Hill that revealed the committed votes the New York senator claims to already have. Van Hollen said that some of those senators on the list have actually already pledged to vote for him instead of Schumer.
He also called for more “inclusion and democracy” within the Democratic caucus, accusing Schumer of trying to exclude the more progressive members of the party. Van Hollen alluded to victories by Democratic senators-elect whose candidacies Schumer did not support – Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Troy Jackson of Maine – and said they “would not be there” if Schumer had his way.
“He joined with Aipac and crypto to try to defeat them,” Van Hollen said, referring in part to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which opposed both El-Sayed and Jackson.
Appearing on ABC News’s This Week, Van Hollen accused Schumer’s team of putting out misinformation by leaking the alleged list of supporters, equating it to an intimidation tactic.
“They’re essentially trying to instill fear in people who may say that they’re going to support me as a new leader,” he said. “We just had a great day for our democracy around the country. How about a little democracy in the Senate Democratic caucus?”
On Fox News Sunday, Van Hollen responded more directly to the Hill’s report, calling it “a bunch of nonsense”. The outlet reported being told by a Schumer confidant that Van Hollen has “no chance of winning” – and that progressives are only using his candidacy to gain leverage over Schumer to sign on to a “liberal wishlist of priorities”.
“This is a wide open race,” Van Hollen said. “The other team has been putting out numbers that are flatly wrong.
“They’re trying to create this false sense of momentum. If they really believed that they were ahead, they wouldn’t be trying to move up the elections.”
Van Hollen also said that the number of senator supporters he had as of Sunday was “15 and growing”.
“I agree with the American people and all our candidates who ran across the country that this is not about left versus right. It’s not about progressives or moderates or conservatives,” he said. “Those are old Washington labels. It’s much more about taking on a rigged economy, rigged in favor of the very wealthy and fueled by political corruption.”
The race will be the first contested election for Democratic leader in decades. The closed-door, secret-ballot election is set to be held in early December.
Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the current Senate, had immediately responded to Van Hollen’s initial challenge for leadership in a social media post on Thursday, writing that he welcomed “any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead”. But he added that he had “the votes to continue serving as Democratic leader”.
The Democratic caucus has privately deliberated about what message to take from the midterm elections – whether they truly represents an upswing in popularity for the party or if it was simply a firm rejection of Trump’s far-right policies.
Several of the incoming Democratic senators have voiced their desire for new leadership.
Beside El-Sayed and Jackson, that includes Senators-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas, Annie Andrews of South Carolina, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota.
Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont, also recently said that he would not support Schumer’s bid to serve as the Democratic leader.
Meanwhile, Scott Colom, the Democratic senator-elect who recently achieved a historic upset in Mississippi, said he was in “listening mode” when it came to who he would cast his vote for to lead his party’s Senate caucus.
“I’m going to figure out what are the things that people are doing well in leadership, what are the things they’re not doing well, and find out how we can work together to achieve results,” Colom said Sunday on NBC News’s Meet the Press.
Schumer did help recruit many of the party’s winning candidates and raised money for them.
But many say Democratic Senate candidates Angie Nixon in Florida and Jamie Davis in Louisiana could have won races they narrowly lost in their states had they been given more support from the party establishment, including Schumer.
