Democrats are pressing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 75, to stay out of future primaries after his 78-year-old pick for Maine’s Senate race dropped out this week, Politico reported.
On Thursday, Gov. Janet Mills announced that she would drop out of the Democratic primary, essentially clearing the field for insurgent progressive candidate Graham Platner to become the party’s nominee to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Schumer had backed Mills, the two-term governor of Maine, for the marquee race involving the only Republican representing a state with a majority that voted for Kamala Harris.
But Mills consistently polled behind Platner despite a litany of controversies around the oysterman regarding his use of a slur for people with disabilities, and his comments on Reddit from more than a decade ago about Black people not tipping at restaurants and about sexual assault.
“I think the math and polling would indicate that that would be a good idea,” Sen Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told Politico about the stunning rebuke to Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The anti-Schumer dynamic is playing out in various primaries. In Michigan’s open Senate race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, whom Heinrich endorsed, has said she would not support Schumer to continue being majority leader.
Shortly after Mills dropped out, McMorrow posted a video on social media boasting that she was the first Democratic senate candidate who would not support Schumer as leader.
“It is not acceptable when you are one of 100 people in the country who hold the position of United States senator to go on national news and say, ‘Well, the Democrats aren't in charge right now, I guess we can't do anything,’” she said.
It’s also a way to contrast herself with Rep. Haley Stevens, Schumer’s preferred choice to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.
Other candidates such as Juliana Stratton, who won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Illinois, and Zach Wahls have echoed this sentiment. Curiously, each of these candidates have been endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the progressive firebrand and top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
“The Democratic establishment is completely disconnected from where Democratic voters are,” Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, told The Independent over text message. “People are hungry for change — the institutions that got us to this point cannot be the ones to get us out of it.”
But Schumer has not entirely whiffed in his recruitments. He also convinced former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost re-election in Ohio in 2024, to run for the state’s other Senate seat, though Brown continues to trail Sen. John Husted, who replaced JD Vance when he became vice president.
Schumer also convinced former Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska to challenge Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola has proven to be a monster fundraiser and leads Sullivan in polling. Peltola could have easily run for the open governorship, so Schumer deserves some credit for pushing her to take a tougher race.
And Roy Cooper, the popular former governor of North Carolina, chose to jump into the state’s open Senate race. Cooper has significantly out raised Republican opponent Michael Whatley, whom Trump endorsed.
And wildcard candidates also come with risks. Progressives celebrated when John Fetterman won the Democratic nomination for Senate in 2022, only to be bitterly disappointed with his support for Israel and willingness to work with Donald Trump. And many of the same consultants who worked for Fetterman–who have buyer’s remorse–now work for Platner.
Still, to many, Schumer’s decision to recruit Mills represents the same problem they have with him writ large: a desire to recruit safe and inoffensive, often more moderate candidates.
It’s a sign of a risk-averse Democratic leadership when many voters and many rank-and-file senators and members of Congress want to punish Trump and fiercely fight Republicans.
“Democrats are tired of having leaders dictated by a Washington gerontocracy,” Leah Greenberg, a co-founder of Indivisible, told The Independent. “They’re looking for candidates who are as mad and ready to fight back as they are.”
But the backlash to Schumer also stems, at least in part, to growing concern that the leadership in the party is simply too old and out of touch with the tyounger electorate. That was sparked by the decline of President Joe Biden in real time and the fact Schumer, at 75 — who has already been sharply criticized for his weak handling of the Trump administration in this second term— was clinging to a 78-year-old Mills.
If Democrats flip Alaska, North Carolina and Ohio alongside Maine or even a miracle victory in a state like Iowa or Texas, Schumer will likely keep his job, given that majority leader requires only a majority of support within the Democratic caucus.
But the DSCC and Schumer’s leadership will have to change significantly if he wants to keep his job, especially as a lean and hungry Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looms over him from the House of Representatives.
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