'Hell Yes, Let's Go': Van Hollen Challenges Schumer for Senate Majority Leader

Thursday's announcement that Sen. Chris Van Hollen will challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to lead the upper house of Congress when Democrats retake control in January was met with cautious optimism from progressives, who underscored the mandate for change delivered by voters in last week's Democratic midterm blowout.

"Yes, I am planning to run for the Senate majority leader," Van Hollen (D-Md.) told Jen Psaki on MS NOW Thursday night. "This is not about any one individual but it is about answering the call of the American people."

"We saw a huge outburst of democracy on Election Day; red states, blue states, purple states," the senator continued. "And it wasn't only a rejection of [President] Donald Trump and his corruption, and his wars, and his cruelty. It was also about a call... to take on a broken economic system that's rigged in favor of the very wealthy against working people, and it's fueled by a corrupt political system."

"The call was to reject the status quo, and to reject business as usual," Van Hollen added. "And to do that, I think we need new leadership."

Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) was among the first to hail Van Hollen's announcement, writing on social media that he called on the senator "to lead our caucus as a candidate back in April because he leads with courage and experience."

"We need both right now," El-Sayed added. "Which is why I’m proud to stand with him in his bid to lead our Senate majority."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) soon followed, noting that "the American people voted for change. They want a Democratic Party that will stand up to powerful special interests, take on the billionaire class, and fight for working families."

"That is why I am supporting Senator Chris Van Hollen to lead Senate Democrats," he added.

The secret-ballot vote to choose the next majority leader is expected to take place in early December and would mark the first contested Democratic leadership contest in decades.

Author Courtney Millan said on Bluesky that she is calling her "centrist-ass senators and asking them to back Chris Van Hollen."

Journalist Matt Novak said, "Hell yes, let's go."

The youth-led Sunrise Movement for climate action said on Bluesky that "Young people voted for change on election night. Chuck Schumer can’t give us that, but Chris Van Hollen might."

"The truth is, the ‘blue tsunami’ could easily become the blue mirage in the wrong hands," Sunrise continued. "And Schumer’s hands are too full of billionaire money to hold young people’s future."

"Young people are looking for a fair shot at life, and they haven’t yet been given one," the group added. "While the climate crisis barrels toward us at full speed, politicians like Schumer, who has been in office since 1974, have received plenty of chances."

"Chris Van Hollen has spent the last two years fighting to release his constituents out of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] custody, spoken out against [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's] corrupting influence, and tried to build the future young people deserve," Sunrise noted.

"But Senate Democrats won't elect him just because young people want change," the group cautioned. "We’ll have to show up at their offices like young people did today at Schumer’s Senate office."

More than 50 Sunrise activists were arrested during Thursday's sit-in at Schumer's Washington, DC office.

Schumer, meanwhile, responded to the news by posting on X:

I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together—55 seats and counting is an amazing result—and I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader. I look forward to leading our new Democratic majority and delivering for the American people.

Van Hollen drew plaudits from human rights defenders, who noted his opposition to US wars and support for Israel and for authoritarian regimes around the world. The senator has criticized Israel for what a UN commission of inquiry and many other experts have called its genocide in Gaza and what the International Court of Justice has found to be an illegal occupation and apartheid in the West Bank.

Americans, Van Hollen wrote earlier this year in one of his many calls to end US armed aid to Israel, “do not want to be complicit in ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, or what human rights organizations and scholars have determined to be genocide in Gaza.”