Chris Van Hollen chooses his words carefully when I ask him about Chuck Schumer. Yet the Maryland Democrat’s ambivalence about the Democratic Senate minority leader is clear. In the wake of the recent shutdown’s bitter ending, where eight members of Schumer’s caucus, including one independent, sided with Republicans to reopen the federal government, does Van Hollen believe Schumer is still an effective leader?
“I think we have to have a conversation in our caucus about how we’re going to move forward,” he tells me. “That includes both what we’re going to fight against in terms of the lawless Trump presidency, but also what we will stand for and what we’re gonna fight for.” Is Schumer encouraging that kind of Democratic self-examination? “I believe he recognizes that it’s going to be important,” Van Hollen says—and then pauses for a long beat. “But we will see.”
Not that Van Hollen intends to just passively wait. Along with seven other senators, he’s formed a coalition that calls itself the “Fight Club.” The group—which includes Democratic senators Tina Smith of Minnesota, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, plus Vermont independent Bernie Sanders—plans to press Schumer to oppose Trump more aggressively and to back more populist Senate candidates in the 2026 midterms. Arizona’s Mark Kelly has been showing plenty of fight on his own, urging members of the military to defy illegal orders.
Since the end of the shutdown, some House Democrats and liberal groups have been going further, calling for Schumer’s ouster. “He should be replaced,” a major Democratic donor tells me. “He can’t hold his caucus together.” Combined with the attacks Schumer faced in March for voting in favor of a Republican funding bill, it’s been his roughest year since becoming the Senate Democratic leader in 2017. “The level of frustration with him is certainly higher than I’ve seen in my time,” a senior Democratic Senate operative says.
Which is a long way from actually trying to remove Schumer as leader, of course, which no Senate Democrat has advocated so far. Schumer’s camp points out, correctly, that past Senate leaders, including Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, have endured far greater internal dissatisfaction, and that most of the current sniping comes from progressive Democrats who represent safely blue states or districts. Schumer believes the path to a Senate majority, and to stymieing Trump, remains up the ideological middle.
