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Sanders and Slotkin Decline to Back Schumer as Senate Democrats Approach Leadership Vote
By Eleanor Ever Loyal
Eleanor Ever Loyal
Eleanor Ever Loyal is The Library Media’s regulation and governance correspondent.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan will not support Sen. Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader, The Hill reported Tuesday, adding two prominent names to a series of public and unanswered questions about Schumer’s support ahead of next week’s leadership elections.
The Hill’s Nov. 10 report said Sanders and Slotkin would not back Schumer. The report did not establish whether either senator attached conditions to that position, and neither senator’s stated position should be read as an endorsement of a particular alternative. No other candidate for the leadership post was identified in the reporting provided.
Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declined to back Schumer, according to the day’s coverage. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, asked about the leadership question, did not give a direct answer, that coverage reported.
The statements and non-commitments put the leadership question into public view a week before Senate Democrats are scheduled to choose their leaders on Nov. 18 and 19. The vote will determine who leads the party’s Senate conference in the new Congress.
Democrats are set to hold the Senate majority, according to the results in the Library’s verified election coverage: 54 Democratic seats have been called, compared with 44 Republican seats, while two races remain uncalled. The leadership election is an internal party decision, separate from the broader election results.
Schumer’s position is therefore being discussed as Democrats prepare to take control of the chamber. Sanders and Slotkin have said they will not support him, while Ocasio-Cortez has declined to offer backing and Warnock has not answered the question directly, according to the reporting available Tuesday.
The reporting does not establish how many Democratic senators oppose Schumer, whether the senators who have withheld support are coordinating their positions, or whether any of them would support another candidate. It also does not identify a named alternative who is seeking the leadership post.
No statement from Schumer or his office was included in the reporting provided for this article. The reasons behind Sanders’s and Slotkin’s positions, beyond their stated decisions not to back him, are likewise not established in the available account.
With the leadership elections scheduled for Nov. 18–19, the public positions reported Tuesday leave several central questions unanswered: the size of any opposition within the Democratic conference, the field of candidates, and the level of support Schumer will have when senators vote. The outcome has not been established by the statements reported so far.
— Eleanor Ever Loyal, National Desk
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