Chuck Around. Find Out.
Can Schumer lead the Democrats through the coming shutdown fight?
CHUCK SCHUMER HAS A PLAN THIS TIME—or so he and his allies insist.
Six months ago, the Senate Democratic leader caught his own colleagues off guard when he agreed to vote for the Republican government-funding bill and recruited enough Democratic colleagues to get it passed. He defended the decision and has ever since. But it still incited a wave of intense backlash. Democratic members of Congress were so outraged that some encouraged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer when he’s up for re-election in 2028.
Now, as a government-shutdown fight nears again, Schumer world insists that proper preparations have been made to avoid the internal party drama and late-stage histrionics that accompanied the fight last time around.
Schumer spent the summer meeting privately with caucus members to get their input on what issues Democrats should focus on. He sent early signals to Republicans that he expected them to come to the negotiating table to work out a bipartisan agreement. Before members left D.C. for the August recess, he issued marching orders to colleagues to focus on rising costs and health care. At the end of last month, Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to their GOP counterparts stressing that they needed a plan to address “the healthcare crisis Republicans have triggered in America” if they wanted Democrats to help pass the funding bill. More than anything else, Schumer and his office are insisting to anyone who will listen that there is unity within the ranks. Democratic lawmakers are marching in lockstep.
“The Republicans have to come to meet with us in a true bipartisan negotiation to satisfy the American people’s needs on health care, or they won’t get our votes,” Schumer told reporters on Thursday morning as he emerged from a closed-door meeting with Jeffries.
But if the goal is the projection of confidence, then not everyone is feeling so surefooted. Ask anyone in professional Democratic political circles how their internal constitution feels as the upcoming September 30 government shutdown deadline draws closer, and they’ll give you a variation of “not particularly good.” At the heart of that anxiety is concern that Schumer’s plan may not be air tight.
“His credibility as a leader is on the line, and everyone recognizes that,” a senior Democratic Senate staffer told me.
One reason that the spotlight on Schumer is so bright and hot right now is