Michigan Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) said Senate Democrats need new leadership, a position that rules out his support for Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to continue as the party’s leader in the chamber. El-Sayed named Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) as the Democrat he would prefer to see run for majority leader. Reports have indicated that Van Hollen is weighing a 2028 presidential campaign.
“I’d love to see him run,” El-Sayed said of Van Hollen. “It seems that he has his sights set on another prize. But I’ve been very clear that I think we need new leadership.“
El-Sayed did not commit to any candidate. “But a vote is a choice between two options,” he said of the leadership race. “I don’t know what the options are right now. So let’s see who comes out of the woodwork and is excited to lead.“
The incoming senator’s stance puts him at odds with the leader who backed his general election campaign. Schumer did not start out in El-Sayed’s corner. In the Democratic primary, Schumer first supported El-Sayed’s rival, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) of Birmingham. After El-Sayed won the nomination, Schumer threw his support behind him.
Frustration with Schumer’s leadership has simmered among Democrats in recent years, even as the party flipped at least seven Republican-held seats. He addressed that criticism Wednesday at a press conference at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
“This is not about me … This is about the American people and what they want and what they need and what we can do to help them. Plain and simple,” Schumer said.
El-Sayed is one of at least five newly elected Democrats who have either declined to back Schumer or threatened to withhold their votes, all before taking office. Schumer needs only a majority of the Democratic caucus to keep his post, and current projections put the caucus at 54 to 56 members in 2027.
“The issue is not me. I’ll be reelected as majority leader. But the issue is focusing on the American people and what they want,” Schumer told reporters.
Senate Democrats hold their leadership elections next month.
While El-Sayed is publicly breaking with Schumer, he has extended a rare olive branch to President Donald Trump. He appeared on Morning Joe on Thursday, and host Joe Scarborough asked El-Sayed about Trump’s plan to cut $4 billion in aid to Israel by January. El-Sayed said Americans “have to separate between Judaism and the Jewish people and Israel and its actions. We have to.” He said he would criticize human rights abuses by the government of Egypt, where his immigrant parents came from, just as readily, and would keep that separate from “people who are in Egypt.”
“I agree with him on that. I don’t think that we should be continuing to subsidize a foreign military that has done the worst things with our money,” El-Sayed said of Trump. “I agree, I’d love to work with him on doing that. In fact, I don’t know that we should be continuing to sell weapons to a country that is, again, using our weapons to do awful things.”
Q: What do you think about Trump talking about cutting off aid to Israel?
El-Sayed: I agree with him on that. I don’t think we should be continuing to subsidize a foreign military that is again using our weapons to do awful things.Â
I agree. I would love to work with him on… pic.twitter.com/NjqE3dKuzN
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 5, 2026
