Democratic U.S. Senate candidates running in several key races across the country are publicly distancing themselves from Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
From Maine to Texas, many Democratic Senate hopefuls are sharply critical of Schumer — who has held elected office since 1975 — as the party’s ratings have hovered around record lows in recent months. Multiple Democratic Senate candidates recently shared their thoughts with the Post on Schumer — and all of the candidates contacted by the outlet said they would not support him as the party’s leader in the next Congress.
Graham Platner, an oyster farmer running for U.S. Senate in Maine, has vowed — alongside three of his Democrats primary opponents — to not support Schumer for majority leader.
“We are right now living in the outcome of a failed electoral strategy, that is why Democrats don’t hold power, and much of that strategy was driven by Chuck Schumer,” Platner, who is running to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, told The Washington Post.
Platner is widely viewed as a rising star on the party’s hard-left faction and he has been compared to socialist Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. He is endorsed by Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Hell no. And hell no is the easy answer,” Nathan Sage, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Iowa, told the outlet when asked if Schumer should continue as leader in the next Congress.
Sage’s primary opponent, Democratic Iowa State Sen. Zach Wahls, highlighted the ramifications of being supported by Schumer in the Republican-leaning state.
“Being seen as the preferred candidate of Chuck Schumer in the state is going to make it pretty dang hard to win an election in this state [Iowa],” Wahls told the Post.
Terry Virts, a retired astronaut running for Senate as a Democrat in Texas, also called for new leadership in a campaign video, saying, “Chuck Schumer is not the leader our party or our country needs. He is not the man for the moment.”
Another Senate candidate, Illinois Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, said she believes it’s “time for new leadership and new ideas” in a statement to the outlet while also expressing disagreement with Schumer’s decision to keep the government open in March. Stratton is running to succeed retiring Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, and is endorsedby Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
David Laska, communications director for New York Republican Party, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Democrats are realizing their leader will only pull them down as the midterms heat up.
“Chuck Schumer is the kind of politician that our founders warned us against. He is a career politician who’s never added a dime of value to anybody in the private sector his entire life,” Laska told the DCNF. “He’s a demagogue. His entire career has been about power over principle.”
Laska said Schumer is “virtually afraid” of the far left flank of his party, as his fellow New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez could “kick his ass up and down New York State” in a primary.
Laska said the candidates’ separation from Schumer is an “embarrassment” for the Democratic Leader.
“He doesn’t have the confidence of his own party. The Democratic Party right now nationally is rudderless. They are leaderless. And the only people stepping up are radicals like Gavin Newsom, AOC, Zohran Mamdani,” Laska said. “Chuck Schumer was actually in a position to be a calming voice in the Democratic Party, to be a moderating voice, but he’s a coward. He’s not a leader.”
Democrat’s ratings hit record lows in March, but proceeded to drop even lower throughout the summer, marking the worst favorability ratings the party has seen in years.
“People are mad we lost the last election, people are frustrated with the party’s response,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis told NBC. “Fairly or unfairly, the establishment is the least popular it’s been in my career — two decades.”
John McLaughlin, a Republican strategist in New York, told the DCNF that Schumer’s base in the Empire State is fleeing to the suburbs and being replaced by a younger generation of Democrats seeking new leadership.
“What’s going on inside the Democratic party is they do not like Israel anymore, and a significant number of their voters are Jewish,” McLaughlin said. “Schumer is losing his base. His base in Brooklyn is leaving. Secular nonreligious voters are taking over the Democratic party, and they happen to be young and big government socialists.”
“Schumer with his sanctuary city policies, high tax policies, his appeasement to Iran and to terrorists like Hamas — he has no base,” McLaughlin added. “It’s amazing Schumer has been able to hang on.”
Schumer has been met with significant pushback from Ocasio Cortez and other Democrats over his hesitation to endorse Mamdani, who won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor on June 24.
“The Democratic party in New York has moved really far left in this space. Mamdani is headed to be mayor in New York City,” McLaughlin said. “The big government socialists are the tail wagging the dog in the New York State Democratic Party.”
Democratic Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow had called for Schumer to step down as party leader in March, before she officially announced her bid for U.S. Senate.
“We need new leaders because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it,” McMorrow said in her campaign launch video in April.
Alex Nguyen, a spokesperson for Schumer, told Politico that the leader’s “North Star is winning the majority in 2026.”
Schumer did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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