Sen. Chris Van Hollen* of Maryland said Monday that he has not ruled out challenging Chuck Schumer to lead the new Democratic Senate majority, and the left wing of his party is lining up behind him.
“What I’ve said from the very beginning is we shouldn’t have a coronation,” Van Hollen told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to Anadolu Agency. “My view is that we should have a full caucus discussion before anybody makes any decision.” Asked whether he was open to running, he said, “I haven’t closed the door.”
Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed: “I think Senator [Chris] Van Hollen would be an amazing Senate Majority Leader.” https://t.co/R98GOtyaJi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 8, 2026
Democrats flipped the Senate on Nov. 3 and will hold at least 54 seats in January. Whoever wins the caucus vote becomes majority leader and decides which bills reach the floor. Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017, said last week, “I’ll be re-elected as majority leader.”
Who is pushing him
The push is coming from the activist left. Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible, told Politico Playbook that he had spoken with Van Hollen as recently as Sunday. “He has not sought the position, but he has also not closed the door to the position,” Levin said, as reported by AL.com. “And I think if there is sufficient public demand, that not only would he possibly get in the race, but I think he could win.”
Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed has said he would vote for Van Hollen. Van Hollen backed El-Sayed in the Democratic primary over Rep. Haley Stevens, whom Schumer endorsed.
The left-wing streamer Hasan Piker has also endorsed the idea. “Chris Van Hollen flew down to El Salvador to get proof of life for his constituent Kilmar Garcia when the kidnappings were happening,” Piker posted. “We need fighters to lead at this critical moment.”
On Saturday, at Crooked Media’s Crooked Con event in Washington, Van Hollen said that “nobody should get a blank check without a full understanding from the caucus as to where we’re going to go,” the Washington Post reported.
🚨 CHAOS IN NYC! Thousands of leftists just marched through Times Square chanting “No Schumer, No Jeffries!” The Democrats haven’t even taken their seats yet and their radical base is already turning on them. Total civil war within the Democrat Party. Popcorn ready! 🇺🇸🍿 https://t.co/9ShoKupKzm
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) November 7, 2026
The El Salvador trip
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the Salvadoran man the Trump administration deported to El Salvador in March 2025. The administration said he was a member of the MS-13 gang, which he denied. In April 2025, Van Hollen flew to San Salvador and met with him, and he made Abrego Garcia’s return a national cause for Democrats. Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States that June to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he pleaded not guilty.
For Van Hollen’s supporters, that trip is his main credential. I see a senator who traveled abroad on behalf of a man federal prosecutors went on to charge with smuggling people into this country.
The bottom line
Republicans should watch this fight closely, because it tells us where the new majority is headed. Schumer is no moderate, and he has promised to tie up the President’s agenda. Yet the energy in his own party is running toward a senator whose best-known act was a trip to El Salvador for Abrego Garcia, and the people cheering him on include Indivisible and Hasan Piker.
If Democrats choose Van Hollen, they will be telling voters that their Senate will put open-border causes ahead of the cost of living that they say won them the election. If Schumer survives, he will owe his job to a caucus that is pulling him further left.
Senate Republicans in the minority should make Democrats own that choice in every floor debate on the border, from the first day of the new Congress.
* Chris Van Hollen is a Democratic politician and attorney, Maryland’s senior U.S. senator, in office since 2017.
Karachi, Pakistan, was his birthplace, on January 10, 1959; his father was a Foreign Service officer, and his childhood included stretches in Pakistan, Turkey, India, and Sri Lanka. His degrees came from Swarthmore College, Harvard’s Kennedy School, and Georgetown University Law Center, the last through night classes.
Early in his career, Republican Senator Charles Mathias employed him as a defense and foreign policy aide from 1985 to 1987. His elected career began with the Maryland State Senate (1995–2003), followed by fourteen years representing Maryland’s 8th congressional district (2003–2017). In the House, he chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and became the Budget Committee’s ranking member.
Barbara Mikulski’s retirement opened the Senate seat he won in 2016, after beating Donna Edwards in the primary. He led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2017 to 2019, and his current term runs until January 2029.