NEW YORK — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) loose alliance with the Left has begun to unravel as Democratic anger over his government funding vote seeps into his home state.
Schumer is facing the distinct possibility of a primary challenge after he handed Republicans the votes to keep the government open last week, with progressives encouraging Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to run for his seat when he faces reelection in 2028.
The threat is familiar to Schumer, whose durability in New York politics is based, in part, on his ideological flexibility. He successfully warded off a 2022 challenge with a steady shift to the left that earned him the endorsement of the progressive Working Families Party.
But Schumer has risked lasting damage to that relationship as the Democratic base demands aggressive action to oppose President Donald Trump and his sweeping rollback of the federal government.
Schumer maintains that his funding vote was the better of two bad choices, warning in repeated media appearances that a shutdown would have given Trump even more authority to slash federal jobs and shutter agencies.
Yet the pleas have fallen on deaf ears as a constellation of progressive groups in New York have called on Schumer to step down from leadership, while House Democrats, who stood opposed to the GOP-crafted plan, have left him to weather the political storm virtually alone.
On Tuesday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) offered a delayed and perfunctory vote of confidence after the two met in Brooklyn.
“Chuck Schumer is uniquely unfit for this moment,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a New York-based political pundit and lecturer at Columbia University.
“There’s a real energy among Democrats, even if they’re ideologically not in the kind of socialist lefty camp, who are demanding more of the party,” Mitchell said. “Schumer has become the face of ‘Well, it’s just business as usual,’ and that’s not where he needs to be right now.”
The backlash marks a striking political setback for Schumer, who has attempted to carefully manage his relationship with the Left as he ascended the leadership ranks in the Senate. His constituent services have long included aggressive outreach to activist groups in his home state, while he endorsed policies like student debt cancellation ahead of his 2022 run.
For a time, progressives expressed cautious optimism that Schumer could be a partner after Democrats took back control of Congress in 2021. He signaled openness to weakening the filibuster and under President Joe Biden helped usher through a sweeping climate law.
But Schumer has never really shaken the establishment label that he’s carried throughout his five-decade career in politics, and Democrats have not forgotten that he at one time campaigned as a centrist.
Schumer’s position of influence in the Senate – he became the Democratic leader in 2017, shortly before Trump’s first term – has only amplified that reputation. He was called “weak-kneed” for allowing Republicans to reopen the government in 2018 without securing protections for young immigrants in the country illegally.
In Trump’s second term, it has left him politically wounded as Schumer becomes a foil for House Democrats promising to stand strong against Trump.
His vote gave cover to the nine other senators in his caucus, among them Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), New York’s other Democratic senator, who supported the funding bill, allowing Republicans to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Ocasio-Cortez has side-stepped questions over whether she would challenge Schumer in 2028 and may have presidential ambitions instead, but she’s emerged as one of his most vocal critics, calling his funding vote a “huge slap in the face.”
Schumer, for his part, has taken a longer view on Trump’s second term, reasoning that Democrats can drive down his approval ratings if they focus on proposed cuts to federal programs like Medicaid.
“There’s a huge anger at Trump, and it’s justifiable,” Schumer said in a Wednesday interview on MSNBC. “The anger says just stand up to him, but you’ve got to be smart. You’ve got to pick the fight that’s smart.”
Schumer is navigating the backlash in a state famous for progressive unrest. The Left defeated Rep. Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent, in 2020, two years after Ocasio-Cortez gained national notoriety with her shock defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley, seen as a possible successor to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Schumer, who is famous for his Sunday morning press conferences with local reporters, has to some extent inoculated himself from the same political downfall with his constant presence in New York. He’s also a formidable fundraiser whose perch in Senate leadership has directed billions to the state.
But the degree of blowback has forced Schumer onto defense for one of the first times of his political career. He canceled a book tour this week as activists planned protests at his events and faces an increasing number of House Democrats calling for him to retire from leadership.
“If you’re looking at this purely politically, is it a political problem for Schumer? Of course it is. Is it, unchangeable? No, no. Not at all. I mean, we know who Chuck is,” said Bob Liff, a longtime operative in New York politics.
“Is this a death knell for his career? Not even close,” he added.
Schumer remains broadly popular in New York, enjoying a 68% approval rating among Democrats in a Siena College poll released in February. The Marist Poll, meanwhile, has found remarkably static support for Schumer dating back to 2000, with about half of New York registered voters rating his performance as excellent or good.
“Chuck Schumer has always been an advocate for the low-income areas for as long as he’s been in politics. So, when I hear Chuck Schumer’s name, I feel a sense of calm and confidence,” said Annemarie Williams, a technologist at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn. “He has not proven us wrong yet.”
Williams was one of dozens of healthcare professionals who attended a Medicaid “Day of Action” event hosted by Jeffries on Tuesday.
“We can always sit back and say what people should do and should say,” she added, “but I would be confident in Mr. Schumer’s stance that he’s doing what is necessary.”
Schumer has also found some institutional support as he weathers the funding backlash. On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) told reporters Schumer had delivered “time and time again” for New York, praising the infrastructure and business investments he’s been able to steer to the state due to his position of influence in Washington.
“I don’t want to lose that clout,” Hochul said.
But Schumer, at the age of 74, is combatting the same undercurrent of generational backlash that has befallen other party elders in Washington. Younger voters in the downstate enclaves where progressives enjoy their base of support have responded with resigned disapproval to Schumer’s handling of the shutdown fight.
“I probably would have preferred to just let the government shut down and have Trump and Elon own that,” said Eric, a 31-year-old professional from Bushwick who works in tech education who declined to give his last name, “but I mean, I’m not surprised that they’re capitulating.”
He said his view of Schumer was “already pretty low.”
In state politics, progressive lawmakers have already begun to signal their support for an alternative to Schumer in 2028.
JEFFRIES VOICES CONFIDENCE IN SCHUMER’S LEADERSHIP AFTER GOVERNMENT FUNDING VOTE
Chi Osse, a city councilman from Brooklyn, invited a challenge of both Schumer and Gillibrand, while State Sen. Jabari Brisport, 37, told the Washington Examiner Ocasio-Cortez would make an “excellent” candidate.
“He’s had a very long career. He’s been working in this field for a long time,” Brisport said of Schumer. “And, you know, it’s good for politicians to know when it is time to step aside and pass the mantle on.”
