BREAKING: Van Hollen Is 'Actively Calling' Colleagues About Taking On Schumer

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Written by Joseph Jackson

A week after Democrats won the Senate, Maryland's Chris Van Hollen says he's "actively calling my colleagues" about taking on Chuck Schumer. The senator who flew to El Salvador for a deported constituent is now the name critics of Schumer keep coming back to.

By Joseph J. Jackson | NATIONAL (Nov. 10, 2026)

The short version

  • The move: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Tuesday he is weighing a challenge to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and is "actively calling my colleagues," HuffPost reported.

  • The reversal: Last week Van Hollen said he wasn't looking to be the next leader and was "kicking the tires" on a 2028 presidential run. By Monday he was in "active listening mode."

  • The support: Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan backs him. Sen. Bernie Sanders signaled he won't back Schumer. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he's open to new leadership. The Machinists union asked Schumer to make way for "a new generation."

  • The odds: Schumer needs only a bare majority in a closed-door caucus vote, and he helped Democrats win the Senate. HuffPost called it "highly unlikely" anyone else leads Senate Democrats next year.

The latest

Van Hollen spoke Tuesday at Popular Mandate, a left-leaning gathering after the election, where he said he was "actively calling my colleagues" about challenging Schumer, according to HuffPost.

He took direct aim at how Schumer's campaign arm handled this year's primaries. "We have two members in that room, newly elected senators, who would not be there if Schumer and the DSCC had had their way," Van Hollen said, pointing to Sens.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota. He said the committee "sided with the crypto industry and AIPAC against these candidates," and that "only under very, very rare exceptions should the DSCC be weighing in."

That's a sharp turn from a week ago. In a Fox 5 DC interview last Thursday, Van Hollen said, "I've made clear that I'm not looking to be the next Democratic leader." He told The Washington Post he was "very actively kicking the tires on 2028." By Saturday, at Crooked Media's Crooked Con, he said nobody "should get a blank check" to be leader. By Monday he told reporters, "I'm in listening mode and haven't shut the door," and the New York Sun reported he said "thousands" of people had urged him to run.

Who's lining up

  • Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan, senator-elect): "I think he'd be an amazing Senate majority leader," he told CNN. He introduced Van Hollen at a July campaign event as the "next Senate majority leader."

  • Bernie Sanders (Vt.): indicated Tuesday he would not back Schumer for leader, HuffPost reported.

  • Richard Blumenthal (Conn.): "We need to have a conversation about leadership going forward, because we need new energy and ideas."

  • Elissa Slotkin (Mich.): won't back any candidate without a "concrete plan for what's going to be different," and said she won't run herself.

  • The Machinists union (IAM): wrote to Schumer Monday, "We believe this is the right moment for a new generation to lead Senate Democrats."

Schumer's case

Schumer has led Senate Democrats since 2017 and just led them back to the majority. "I'll be reelected as majority leader," he has said. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who ran the Democrats' Senate campaign arm this cycle, said he not only won the Senate back but "cares deeply, and he understands politics well." Senator-elect Sherrod Brown of Ohio said he backs Schumer. The vote is a closed-door caucus election, and Schumer needs only a majority of Democratic senators.

Analysis: The trip and the statement

This section is FMNN analysis.

The reason Van Hollen's name keeps coming up isn't a speech. It's a plane ticket.

In March 2025, the Trump administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father, to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison. The government later admitted in court it was an "administrative error," and the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the administration to help bring him back. The administration didn't.

So Van Hollen went. On April 16, 2025, he flew to El Salvador and asked Vice President Félix Ulloa to release his constituent. The next morning, soldiers stopped him at a military checkpoint about 3 kilometers from CECOT and turned him back. He kept pushing, and that night he met Abrego Garcia face to face, the first person from outside to see him since he was sent to CECOT. He came home and told reporters Abrego Garcia had been "traumatized" there. El Salvador's president mocked the visit online. The White House attacked him for going. Van Hollen didn't back off.

Schumer's response to the same case was a press statement. When El Salvador's president said at the White House that he wouldn't return Abrego Garcia, Schumer called the remark "pure nonsense" and said "due process was grossly violated." Earlier, he had said Democrats would "all have to take extraordinary action" if Trump defied the courts. When Trump did, The New Republic asked his office what that action would be. It got the same statement back.

That was a month after the vote that started the "step aside" calls in the first place. In March 2025, Schumer gave Republicans the Democratic votes they needed to pass a six-month funding bill most of his caucus opposed. Indivisible called on him to step down. Schumer said he was avoiding the "horror of a shutdown" and said, "I'm not stepping down."

To be fair to Schumer, he did speak out on Abrego Garcia, more than once, and a minority leader can't force a president to obey a court. And this fall he did what a leader is supposed to do: he won. But Democrats now hold both chambers. The question for the caucus isn't who can write the strongest statement. It's who will use the majority. One of these senators got on a plane. That's why the phones are ringing in Van Hollen's office.

What's next

  • Senate Democrats are expected to hold their leadership election in the coming weeks, ahead of the new Congress in January.

  • Watch whether Van Hollen formally announces, and whether other senators who've held back, such as Blumenthal and Slotkin, pick a side.

  • Schumer's office has not responded publicly to Van Hollen's Tuesday remarks. FMNN will update this story.

Related reading

Sources

Image: FMNN graphic.

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