Progressives Call On Van Hollen to Challenge Schumer for Senate Leader

Senators Sanders and Slotkin came out against Schumer as Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday, and incoming Democratic Socialists won’t vote for him.

The progressives want very far-left Chris Van Hollen, who is even to the Left of Chuck.

The Washington Post reports that Van Hollen, who has emerged in the second Trump era as a progressive hero, has not yet formally declared that he will seek the role of Senate majority leader. Even if he does, it would be an uphill battle to unseat a veteran who is coming off a historic string of victories in the November election.

He wants Schumer’s Leadership Position

But, buoyed by a surge of online support, Van Hollen said Tuesday that he is “very actively in listening mode” about whether to run against Schumer. The surge of attention has, at the very least, boosted Van Hollen’s public profile as he also openly weighs a presidential bid in 2028.

Van Hollen used to say he was a moderate, but now that Democrats are progressives and socialists, and worse, he’s a progressive.

They are calling him a progressive fighter. He made his bones by going to El Salvador to have drinks with a likely MS-13 member, Kilmar Abrego García.

Van Hollen has his eyes on the White House.

Van Hollen criticized Schumer for siding “with the crypto industry” and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) against progressive candidates.

“We just saw democracy in America in action; we should bring a little more democracy to the United States Senate,” Van Hollen said at the Popular Mandate conference this week. “We have two newly-elected senators who would not be there if Schumer and the DSCC had their way.”

Schumer claims they’re friends, but maybe not when he gets between Van Hollen and his ambitions.

While Sens.-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas, Troy Jackson of Maine, and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan all said on the campaign trail that they would not back Schumer, that bloc isn’t large enough to end his continued leadership. Other incoming Senators like Juliana Stratton of Illinois, Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and James Talarico of Texas have sidestepped the Schumer question for months.

The upcoming radicals want someone who will support ending the filibuster, stacking the Court, and destroying the Constitution. Van Hollen would be perfectly willing to do whatever they want.

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