Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Democratic officeholders and voters alike have been divided over whether their leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is up to the task of taking the president on.
asserted
leader → return → president
That debate intensified on Thursday, when the Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen announced he will challenge Schumer for the post of Democratic Senate leader, which will become one of the most powerful jobs in Washington when the party takes control of Congress’s upper chamber next year.
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party → intensify → chamber
The contest between Schumer and Van Hollen is the party’s first major test of unity after its triumph in last week’s midterm elections, in which voters gave Democrats their biggest majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives in years.
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voters → give → years
Now the party will be forced to confront the two veteran lawmakers’ differing visions on how to use their newly expanded power to confront Trump, advance the party’s agenda and address divisive issues such as the question of aid to Israel.
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party → force → Israel
“Trump’s policies have been fired, but we are still in the position where we need to take advantage of this opportunity.
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we → fire → opportunity
So that does mean closing the trust deficit? …
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that → mean → deficit
And I don’t think you can close the trust deficit by simply returning to the status quo,” Van Hollen said in a speech on Friday.
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Hollen → think → Friday
Progressive groups have cheered the 67-year-old Van Hollen’s candidacy, and he’s picked up a handful of endorsements in the hours since he made his bid official.
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bid → cheer → hours
But his prospects are unclear: the senator said he is an “underdog” in the contest, which is set to be decided at a behind-closed-doors caucus meeting set for 1 December.
uncertain
which → say → December
Schumer, meanwhile, has expressed confidence he’ll win the Democratic caucus’s nod again, and has already been endorsed by senators from across the party’s ideological spectrum.
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he → express → spectrum
“I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead,” Schumer, 75, wrote on X after Van Hollen announced his bid.
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Hollen → welcome → bid
“I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader.”
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I → have → Leader
A New York City native, Schumer won election to the House in 1980, then the Senate in 1998.
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Schumer → win → 1998
He became the top Senate Democrat in 2017, when the party was in the minority at the beginning of Trump’s first term.
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party → become → term
Four years later, Schumer became majority leader under Joe Biden, and managed to win passage of parts of his legislative agenda even though the Democratic caucus was so small it could not lose a single vote on party-line bills.
uncertain
it → become → bills
Trump returned to power in 2025, and it was not long after that Schumer’s leadership came into question.
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leadership → return → question
In March of that year, Congress faced a deadline to approve new government funding or cause a shutdown.
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Congress → face → shutdown
Though many Democrats believed they had leverage over Trump to win concessions, perhaps over the gutting of the federal government by the “department of government efficiency”, Schumer opted to advance a GOP-backed spending measure, arguing that it was a bad time to shut down the government.
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it → believe → government
The compromise triggered an explosion of anger at Schumer both from Democrats in the House of Representatives who had rejected the funding compromise, and activist groups who saw it as a sign that Schumer was no longer fit to be leader.
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Schumer → trigger → sign
“Senator Schumer has contributed to and led many important accomplishments that Indivisible is grateful for.
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Indivisible → contribute → that
But with our democracy on the line, he let us, the country and the Democratic party down,” said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the network of progressive groups.
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Levin → let → groups
“Senator Schumer should step aside as leader.
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Schumer → step → leader
Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately.”
The relationship between Schumer and the party base – including some Democratic lawmakers – has yet to recover.
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relationship → call → lawmakers
Another wave of calls for Schumer to step down arrived later that year, when dissident Senate Democrats decided to end a record-long government shutdown without Republicans meeting any of their demands on healthcare.
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Republicans → step → healthcare
Schumer did not publicly endorse their deal, but it was widely believed to have his backing.
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it → endorse → backing
By the time campaigning for the 2026 midterms began, several candidates were making their opposition to him prominent in their platforms.
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opposition → begin → platforms
In the former, the party out of power has little recourse to block legislation, but in the latter, the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold makes Schumer a major figure in deciding whether his party plays along with the 53 Republicans in the majority, or obstructs them.
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party → have → them
At the same time that Schumer’s standing among Democrats was growing rocky, Van Hollen’s star was ascending.
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star → grow → Democrats
Elected to the Senate from the House in 2016, Van Hollen made national news when he traveled to El Salvador to meet Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian who had been wrongfully deported from Maryland in the early days of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
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who → elect → campaign
He has joined in criticizing Israel, amid a wider backlash among Democratic voters towards the US ally fueled by accusations it committed a genocide in Gaza.
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it → join → Gaza
Van Hollen voted against providing bulldozers and bombs to Israel, and after a visit to the Gaza-Egypt border in 2025, co-released a report accusing Israel of planning to ethnically cleanse the territory.
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Hollen → vote → territory
In September, the senator led an unsuccessful resolution to force the state department to issue a report on violence in the West Bank.
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senator → lead → Bank
Schumer’s criticism of Israel has been comparatively muted – he did not vote for the efforts to cute off arm sales, but did support Van Hollen’s resolution on the state department report.
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he → vote → report
When he was majority leader in 2024, and thereby the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US government, Schumer called on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to step aside.
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Schumer → rank → minister
Last week’s sweep of the midterm elections seems to vindicate his leadership of Senate Democrats – after all, the party won just about every state it was contesting, and some where it had invested few resources.
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it → seem → resources
Yet Van Hollen said Schumer could have done better, noting that several candidates he had backed in the primaries wound up being rejected by voters.
uncertain
he → say → voters
There had been talk of Van Hollen running for president in 2028, and he had initially said he would not challenge Schumer to lead the Senate Democrats.
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he → run → Democrats
Activists groups reacted to his reversal with another wave of calls for the party to find a new Senate leader to take them into the majority next year.
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party → react → majority
“Our members are tired of politicians content with incrementalism – they want bold, creative leadership that will help Democrats usher in affordability and accountability without delay or compromise in the next Congress,” said Joel Payne, the executive director of liberal group MoveOn.
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Payne → want → MoveOn
“We welcome and will support any potential Senate leader willing to meet the moment.”
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We → welcome → moment
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
