Schumer in toughest fight of Senate leadership career
by Alexander Bolton and Aris Folley - 03/18/25 6:00 AM ET
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is facing the toughest fight of his Senate leadership career amid sharp attacks from his party’s base over his vote to advance a House Republican-drafted funding bill.
Senate Democratic colleagues say that Schumer, who is 74 years old, isn’t going anywhere as party leader, but they’re questioning his decisionmaking in a way they haven’t during his previous eight years as leader.
Multiple senators complained about the lack of a clear strategy from their leadership heading into last week’s standoff with Senate and House Republicans over the House-passed funding bill, according to sources familiar with the sometimes heated discussions within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
The legislation cut $15 billion from nondefense programs and didn’t include guardrails to slow Elon Musk’s assault on the federal bureaucracy.
Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), a rising Democratic star who has led the faction of Democratic senators calling for tougher tactics to resist President Trump, says he still supports Schumer as leader but warned that the party needs to show more urgency.
Asked Sunday by “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker if Schumer is the “best person” to lead Senate Democrats, Murphy said “he can lead the caucus” but cautioned “we need to have a conversation inside the caucus about whether we are willing to stand up to Republicans.”
Murphy told The Hill that Senate Democrats risk becoming “irrelevant if we don’t use our power on cloture to demand that we have a seat at the table” on upcoming fights this summer and fall over raising the debt ceiling and funding the government.
“We obviously have to make sure that we aren’t cut out of negotiations in the future,” he said.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5199583-schumer-faces-criticism-over-funding-bill/
