WASHINGTON, D.C. – Frustration with congressional Democrats is boiling over in Capitol Hill following last week’s decision between shutting down the government or agreeing to a Republican funding bill. There is some chatter about a primary challenge for a top Democrat.
Since the election, irritation among Democratic voters has been building. They feel members have not pushed back hard enough against Republicans and the Trump administration. The anger has been mostly directed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- NY) and was heighted after last week’s vote on a short-term funding bill. Some Democrats wrestled with the vote; some believed if they opposed it, it would give them more negotiating power with Republicans and the Administration, but that would’ve lead to a government shutdown. If they approved the measure, some said it would allow for President Trump to continue slashing federal government, but the government would remain open. Schumer said there were only bad options for his party on that vote.
“My job as leader is to lead the party and if there’s gonna be danger in the near future, to protect the party,” said Sen. Schumer. “And I’m proud I did it, I knew I did the right thing and I knew there’d be some disagreements.”
There’s been so much backlash against the long-term Senator, he had to cancel his book tour. “A lot of progressives were putting out the details of where it was and telling their constituency to go give it to him when he was out there,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of political management at George Washington University. “That tells you, there is a lot of frustration against Chuck Schumer.”
Belt adds a shutdown would’ve given the President a lot more power.
“And the fact of the matter is, not only did Schumer not stand up for what he said he was going to do before he flip flopped on them, he didn’t see what was going to happen,” said Dr. Belt. “They thought they were going to stop it in the House. They didn’t really have a plan of action for what to do in the Senate they never really thought through the game on this and that’s as critical as it was. Not just standing up to Trump but both of those things.”
Some prominent Democrats, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) and New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D- NY) are now saying they support Schumer. There’s been some chatter around the Hill if Schumer could face a primary challenge.
“There’s really not a national figure except for someone like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- NY) really waiting in the wings to take over Chuck Schumer, he is the head of the Democrats,” said Dr. Belt. “ Chuck Schumer is a prodigious fundraiser; that’s how you get to be in leadership by the way, so I think his seat is safe as long as he wants it.”
According to other reports, Schumer dismissed the possibility of a primary challenge from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. In an interview with the New York Times, he said he is focused on bringing Trump’s numbers down, his [Trump’s] popularity down, exposing what he has done to America and what he will do.”
Dr. Belt said Republicans are doing well by throwing everything at the Democrats. He adds that if the Democrats want to recover, they’ll need to figure out a plan moving forward and explain why their vision is better than what is going on under Trump and Elon Musk.
“It’s about people and telling people how their lives are going to be pragmatically better the Democrats aren’t certainly doing that right now,” said Dr. Belt. “We do have Gov. Tim Walz (D- MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I- VT) going out to ‘red’ districts and talking to people and listening to their complaints and that’s really how you do it. It has to be from the ground up. You have to listen to people’s concerns, craft an economic message on that and then you have to sell it to them because elections are about the future and until the next election Democrats really don’t have any power.”
