Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Thursday he will not challenge Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for Senate majority leader, telling Fox 5 DC he is “not looking to be the next Democratic leader.”
The Maryland Democrat confirmed his decision to Fox 5 DC days after his party flipped the Senate, adding that he is instead “kicking the tires” on a 2028 presidential run.
Van Hollen set a condition for whoever does take the post. “Whoever’s going to be the next majority leader in the United States Senate needs to make clear to the caucus that he or she is going to do everything within our power to end the illegal and senseless war in Iran and do it now,” he said.
Schumer said he will run again to lead the caucus. The New York senator has led Senate Democrats since 2017. Democrats won control of the chamber Tuesday with at least 54 seats, flipping Republican-held seats in states President Donald Trump carried in 2024, including Texas and Kansas. “Against all odds, we Democrats have won the Senate,” he said on election night.
No senator has formally entered the race against the 75-year-old Schumer. Brian Schatz, Chris Murphy, Van Hollen, and Cory Booker have been floated as alternatives, though none has stepped forward. The caucus will pick its leader by secret ballot when senators meet in the coming weeks.
Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the Senate, reiterated his support for Van Hollen over Schumer. He was the first to name a specific replacement, the same call he made during his campaign. “I think he’d be an amazing Senate majority leader,” El-Sayed said.
A bloc of the incoming class, including Troy Jackson of Maine, Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, Adam Hamilton of Kansas, and Juliana Stratton of Illinois, has rejected Schumer as leader, according to Truthout. Most flipped Republican-held seats.
Van Hollen, who is in his second Senate term, argued the election was a repudiation of Trump and a demand to rebuild an economy he claimed is “rigged against working people,” calling for an agenda of “not baby steps, not timid things, not finger in the wind politics.”
Van Hollen has led the Senate effort to force votes on war powers resolutions aimed at ending what he calls Trump’s illegal Iran war, a campaign Republicans have repeatedly blocked.
