Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said on Sunday that he has “a path” to victory in his bid to oust Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) from his leadership role.
Van Hollen, who recently announced his plan to run for Senate Majority Leader ahead of his party taking control in January, told CNN anchor Dana Bash that he believed he had enough support to topple the New Yorker, who has served as the leader of the Senate Democrats — whether in the majority or the minority — since 2017.
“How many votes do you have now?” Bash asked Van Hollen during Sunday’s broadcast of “State of the Union.”
“I have a path to get there, no doubt about it,” Van Hollen replied. “I saw that Senator Schumer’s team put out a list just the other day of people they said who are voting for Senator Schumer. I can tell you that a number of those people on that list have actually committed to voting for me.”
“And the others are very open to the idea of change,” he continued. “There’s a hunger for change within the Senate Democratic Caucus. There are also reports that are credible that the Schumer team is trying to change the date of the election to try to move it up from December 1st.”
Van Hollen argued that the point was to have “discussion and debate” before the elections took place so that each candidate had a chance to present “their vision for the future” — and said that if Schumer was trying to push for a faster vote, he saw that as “a sign of weakness.”
Van Hollen’s bid for leadership has support from Senator-elect Abdul El Sayed (D-MI) — who actually voiced his support for the Maryland Senator before he’d announced his plans to run — but has a vocal critic in Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). Fetterman told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday that he would be very concerned about the overall direction Demcorats were going if Van Hollen succeeded in his efforts to oust Schumer.
.png)
.png)
