Bernie, Slotkin say they won't back Schumer for Senate Majority Leader

“If this campaign was about anything, it was about change, and the need for the Democratic Party, in my view,” Sanders said, “to move in a new and bold direction. I will not be supporting Chuck to be re-elected as the Democrat leader.”

Socialist candidates made a bold showing in the recent midterms where the Senate now favors Democrats 54 to 44, and Democrats hold the House 255 to 168. Members of the Democratic Socialists of America, such as Melat Kiros, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, have all indicated that they would prefer leadership in both the House and Senate that they believe better represents the far-left of the party.

Slotkin, The New York Times reports, said she would not back Schumer without a “concrete plan” as to how the Dems plan to “govern differently.” Schumer had not backed either Maine’s Senator-elect Troy Jackson or Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed.

Despite the misgivings of many in their party, Schumer and incoming House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries seem poised to lead, and there have not been any substantial challengers emerging to take their batons from them.

In comments, Van Hollen called out Schumer for not being in line with the incoming Democrats in the Senate. “We have two members in that room, newly elected senators, who would not be there if Schumer and the DSCC had had their way.” He said that he was “actively listening” to those in his party and has been “actively calling his colleagues about it.”

Many others, however, are standing with Schumer. Senator Kristen Gillibrand praised her fellow NY Senator’s “clarity of thought” and “strategic leadership” while standing with him during a news conference on Tuesday. It was her prediction that her party would show “enormous gratitude for the hard work he has done to get us to this position.”

Van Hollen famously defended gang-affiliated Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who faced deportation to El Salvador. Van Hollen headed to El Salvador to sip margaritas with Garcia to show how inhumane it was that he was deported.

Slotkin recently said that a key policy plan for Democrats was to engage in prosecutions of young conservatives so that they would think twice before working for Republicans. A University of Chicago student filed an ethics complaint against Slotkin over her remarks, which were made during a talk at his university.

The question becomes how far left the Democratic Party is willing to shift after so many voters elected socialist, leftist candidates who ran on promises such as socialized healthcare, transit, housing, and other items.