The Effort to Chuck Chuck Schumer Continues

The effort by progressives to chuck Chuck Schumer as their leader in the Senate is still ongoing. Senators Sanders and Slotkin came out against Schumer on Tuesday and a number of incoming Senators, mostly DSA-types, had already indicated they would not vote for him. 

Schumer is definitely the establishment pick and he seems to be running a kind of inevitability campaign where he just repeatedly expresses confidence that he has the votes even as the campaign against him seems to be gaining strength. 

The progressive alternative is Chris Van Hollen:

Van Hollen, who has emerged in the second Trump era as a progressive hero, has not yet formally declared that he will seek the role of Senate majority leader. Even if he does, it would be an uphill battle to unseat a veteran who is coming off a historic string of victories in the November election.

But, buoyed by a surge of online support, Van Hollen said Tuesday that he is “very actively in listening mode” about whether to run against Schumer. The surge of attention has, at the very least, provided a boon to Van Hollen’s public profile as he also openly weighs a presidential bid in 2028.

When he ran for the Senate in 2016, Van Hollen was considered the moderate candidate, but lately he's moved left.

...over the past two years, the public has gotten to know a different Van Hollen: a progressive fighter taking on both the Trump administration and a Democratic leadership that he has accused of being disconnected from the party’s base.

“That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of,” Van Hollen told a cheering crowd of Iowa party activists last year, as he slammed top Democrats for refusing to endorse Zohran Mamdani, then a New York City mayoral candidate.

On the left he's most known for his efforts on behalf of Kilmar Abrego García, a.k.a. Maryland man.

In April 2025, Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego García, an undocumented immigrant who had been living in Maryland and was illegally sent by the Trump administration to a Salvadoran maximum security prison.

...photos of their eventual meeting became a rallying point for frustrated liberals as anger mounted early in Trump’s second term over his aggressive immigration enforcement policy.

Van Hollen is already making it clear that he's thinking about running for the White House. He's an ambitious guy. So the leadership challenge might be part of his career ladder. But Vox argues that the underlying battle is more about progressives seeing a fighter as opposed to a loser.

The charge for Democrats going forward wasn’t only about issues like anti-war, AI regulation, and lowering the cost of living, it was also to more robustly use the levers of power to frontally oppose this administration. One of Schumer’s biggest points of tension with Democrats was his refusal to shut down the government early in Trump’s term to challenge DOGE, and, later on, his failure to keep moderates united behind a shutdown that appeared to be putting real pressure on the administration to change its policies. That isn’t about right or left — that’s a call for more creativity on how politics are done.

More creative probably means something dumb and short sighted. Packing the Supreme Court, for instance, or maybe getting rid of the filibuster. That's the kind of creativity progressives want to see. In the leadership battle, progressives see Schumer as a failure for caving after he shut down the government last year. They see Van Hollen as a winner who flew to El Salvador and helped an illegal alien remain in the U.S. That Schumer's fight was hopeless and Van Hollen's win was pointless doesn't much matter. They want someone who is willing to tell them boldness and extremism are right and Van Hollen is willing to be that guy.

Finally, the progressive group Sunrise Movement held a protest inside Chuck Schumer's office today. Reportedly, 55 of them were arrested. These are Van Hollen's supporters getting creative. They are demanding Schumer's ouster and the end of the filibuster.

Sunrise Project is at the U.S. Capitol protesting Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer: https://t.co/UZ0FdOl5UT

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) November 12, 2026

Here they are inside his office.

BREAKING: Young people are blockading Chuck Schumer’s office to demand that he STEP UP and pledge to abolish the filibuster or STEP ASIDE as Senate Majority Leader in favor of Senator Chris Van Hollen. https://t.co/H0c9vIKwc8

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) November 12, 2026

🚨BREAKING: 55 Sunrise Movement activists were just arrested after occupying Chuck Schumer's office. Friendly reminder that Sunrise has shifted its focus from the environment to fighting “fascism.” Occupations and public confrontations are part of its bird-dogging playbook! https://t.co/IJ8JD3Xrtk

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) November 12, 2026

Dozens of protesters being arrested outside Schumer’s personal office (he works out of his leadership office in the Capitol). They’re wearing “Green New Deal” shirts yelling, “Hey hey, ho ho, Chuck Schumer has got to go!” https://t.co/V5FzBvENXO

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) November 12, 2026

In case their agenda wasn't clear, here it is. They want lots of pointless action and to call people Nazis.

Winning the election was the beginning. Now we demand a Democratic Party that fights like hell. Call your senators and insist that Schumer step aside. Abolish the filibuster. Put working people first. Send Trump bill after bill. We have to make him own every veto. No more empty promises. Today is the start of the fight of our lives. https://t.co/wKjk7rvFmU

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) November 6, 2026

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

Help us continue to shine a light on the socialist takeover by joining HotAir VIP.  Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.