A coalition of progressive organizations launched a campaign on Tuesday in Washington to pressure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) into resigning from his leadership position.
RootsAction, World BEYOND War, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans For Peace, and Peace Action revealed they are circling a mobile electric billboard around the Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday to intensify scrutiny of Schumer. They expressed outrage that the Senate minority leader has not fully embraced certain progressive views, including denouncing Israel, signaling the growing backlash Schumer faces from anti-establishment factions in his party.
The electronic billboard reads: “Chuck Schumer has failed to provide real leadership against a war-crazed Trump administration” and “Chuck Schumer: Step Aside as Minority Leader.”
“Senator Schumer has consistently shown that he is out of step with the wants and needs of the Democratic base,” RootsAction political director Sam Rosenthal, who has helped lead other anti-Schumer campaigns, said in a statement.
“Worse than that, he has actively impeded progress on some of the most pressing issues — ending arms sales to Israel, defunding our forever wars, and implementing progressive economic policies that benefit the working class,” he continued. “The party simply cannot move forward with him at the head of the Senate caucus and he needs to step away from leadership for the benefit of the party’s future.”
In addition to the billboard campaign, the coalition said it is organizing “large numbers” of constituent emails to Democratic senators complaining about Schumer’s leadership on issues ranging from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Iran war.
“He has made clear on Iran, ICE, and other issues that he prefers to keep catastrophes going in order to pose as an ‘opponent’ of them,” the emails read. “The problem with this strategy is that we, your constituents, see through it, and it disgusts us. As your constituent, I strongly urge you to have the political courage to call for Schumer to step aside as minority leader.”
The campaign comes amid increasing tensions among Democrats over the direction of their party. Schumer retains core backing from long-standing members of his caucus, including Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).
But others, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D–CT), have begun to put some distance between themselves and Schumer, as the progressive pressure intensifies.
BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF DEMOCRATS SEEN THROUGH PRISM OF BITTER SENATE PRIMARIES
The type of Democratic candidates who win the midterm elections this November could determine Schumer’s future. Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic nominee looking to unseat Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Graham Platner, who is likely to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have expressed support for ousting the Senate minority leader.
“There are already some Democrats in the Senate that are gunning for him,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon previously told the Washington Examiner. “If a sizable number of anti-establishment candidates end up being added to the roster of Democratic senators, there will be a fight over the party leadership.”
