Congress

How Chuck Schumer plans to weather the storm

Published

10 months ago

November 11, 2025

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is the target of liberal fury for a second time this year. His Democratic colleagues aren’t joining the pile-on.

The New York Democrat is facing calls to resign from his leadership post from a coalition of progressive outside groups, House Democrats and even some Senate hopefuls over the chamber’s approval of a bipartisan shutdown deal that he didn’t even vote for.

That’s a U-turn from March, when he assumed responsibility for helping advance a GOP-written government funding stopgap that sparked weeks of intense criticism and calls for his ouster from Democrats outside the Senate. This time, Schumer joined with most of the caucus to blast the agreement for not meeting Democrats’ top demand — an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Outside the Senate, that’s a distinction without a difference to Schumer’s critics, who believe he should have done more to stop eight Democratic caucus members from defecting. Inside the Senate, views are more nuanced.

“Chuck didn’t want this to happen. And I sat with him in rooms as he tried to stop this from occurring. This has got to be a caucus-wide conversation,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a fierce critic of the deal. “Because if this is really how 10 or 15 members are going to regularly conduct business, it’s hard for any leader to stop that from happening.”

The liberal pushback comes as Schumer, 74, faces larger questions about his long-term political future. Progressives are dreaming of a 2028 primary challenge, and he has repeatedly declined to say whether or not he will run for a sixth Senate term.

Instead, Schumer insists he’s keeping his focus on the 2026 midterm elections — and a chance of once again becoming majority leader.

While many Senate Democrats expressed frustration with the outcome of the shutdown fight, there is no appetite for an immediate Schumer ouster, according to five people granted anonymity to discuss internal caucus dynamics.

Schumer isn’t up for reelection as leader until after the 2026 midterms that he is expected to try to make a referendum on Trump and health care. He indicated earlier this year that he intends to run for the post again. So far, no one is chomping at the bit to challenge him nor is there a consensus on who, if anyone, could — though there’s also no real incentive for a challenger to emerge more than a year in advance.

“You can argue and I can make the case that Chuck Schumer has done a lot of bad things, but I think getting rid of him — who’s going to replace him?” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told BLN’s Rachel Maddow, adding that he views Schumer and most of the Senate Democratic Caucus as part of the “establishment.”

Schumer is brushing off the latest wave of criticism from the left flank of his party, believing it comes with the job of being the leader.

He’s hardly the first Senate leader to get flak from his party. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the longtime Republican leader, faced frequent and withering criticism from conservative critics but remained in the top spot for years — even defeating a challenger in 2022.

One thing the two have in common: Schumer and McConnell both spent time leading their party’s campaign committees and kept close control of political operations as leaders — meaning they played a key role in electing many of the lawmakers who in turn vote on leadership races. Schumer has recruited several big names to run this year, though some primary candidates he is not backing have already called for him to resign.

After the March funding fight, Schumer made a concerted effort to prevent another crack-up ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. He kept in close touch with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and they together strategized around making health care the centerpiece of their messaging.

The two leaders were not in perfect harmony during the six-week shutdown, but they mostly sang from the same songsheet. Jeffries gave his fellow Brooklynite a quick gesture of confidence after the Senate moved forward with the deal this week.

“Yes and yes,” he said, when asked if Schumer was effective as Senate minority leader and should keep his job. He went on to praise Schumer’s “valiant fight on behalf of the American people.”

In March, he responded to a similar query with, “Next question.”

But the progressive anger at Schumer is centered around a belief that he didn’t do enough to hold his members together to try to force concessions from Republicans on health care.

“The most generous case for Schumer is to believe him — that he and 39 other members of his caucus … all believed that one thing was the correct strategy and that he was able to get undermined by eight outliers. Well, what does that say about his leadership?” Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said Tuesday.

“We’ve worked very closely with his office, we did not call for him to step down in March when others like Indivisible did, but on many fronts after this saga it’s clear there is a failure of leadership and there needs to be a change,” he added.

Schumer has acknowledged he encouraged members of his caucus to talk with Republicans in the early weeks of the shutdown. But behind the scenes, he privately told the negotiators he couldn’t support the agreement they were envisioning and privately urged them to hold out to try to get more concessions, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

A core group of Democratic negotiators, however, believed no further concessions were going to happen no matter how long their caucus held out — and they were able to convince enough of their colleagues of that over the past week. Big victories in this month’s off-year elections delayed but did not destroy that conclusion.

“I know that there were number of my colleagues who thought that, well, we had this big victory on Tuesday, but that didn’t change the impact of the shutdown and I was convinced, as for the people who voted with me … that another day, another week, another month, was not going to make a difference,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Shaheen said Schumer did not try to dissuade her but would not say if he was supportive of her efforts. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Schumer was “informed” but “he definitely did not bless it.” Schumer’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told reporters that Schumer gave the eight who voted for the deal neither a “blessing or a curse.”

Schumer “handled this well,” Durbin added. “It was a hard assignment.”

In addition to keeping tabs on the negotiators, Schumer met regularly with members of the progressive wing of his caucus. Privately, he made the case that Democrats were winning the shutdown fight and that cracks were starting to emerge from Republicans, the person close to the negotiations added. He also convinced Democrats who privately wanted to vote to reopen the government weeks ago to hold out.

The progressive bloc, however, isn’t running to his defense. At the same time, its members aren’t openly criticizing him, preferring instead to sidestep questions about his leadership.

“I think Democrats need to continue the fight to lower families’ costs, and we need to be more effective in that fight,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said when asked whether or not Schumer should remain leader.

Pressed if Schumer had been doing that, Warren said, “The Democrats did not hold the line.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Democrats “will have to figure out a better strategy going forward.” But he declined to discuss Schumer, adding that “I’m not going to get into all of that right now.”

Murphy said the underlying issues “would be difficult for any leader to manage.”

“We clearly have a repeating problem in our caucus, that the minority of members are reaching deals with Republicans,” he said. “That’s a problem that the whole caucus has to solve.”

Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

2 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”