Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has endorsed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to lead Senate Democrats.
“Americans voted for change,” Sanders wrote Thursday on X. He said voters want a party willing to challenge powerful interests and billionaires and to fight for working families. “That is why I am supporting Senator Chris Van Hollen to lead Senate Democrats.”
Van Hollen announced Thursday that he would seek the leadership post, challenging current Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Schumer wants to keep the role and lead the party’s Senate majority next year.
Van Hollen said the election showed that voters expect Democrats to address an economy he described as tilted against working people and shaped by political corruption. “To deliver, we need new leadership,” he wrote. “This isn’t about any one person – it’s about answering that call.”
Schumer said he welcomed discussion about the caucus’s future but had the votes to remain leader. He pointed to the party’s election results, saying Democrats had won 55 seats and that he looked forward to leading the new majority.
Sanders said at a Tuesday press conference that he would not support Schumer’s reelection. In an interview on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart,” he had also said he would back Van Hollen if he entered the race.
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan’s 2026 Senate race, has also endorsed Van Hollen. El-Sayed wrote Thursday that voters had rejected Trumpism, but Democrats still needed to earn their mandate through bold leadership. He said he had urged Van Hollen to run in April and was proud to support his bid.
Republican National Committee national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre criticized Van Hollen in a statement posted on X, accusing him of prioritizing a Salvadoran gang member over working families. She described the leadership contest as a preview of Democratic infighting and attacked the party’s positions on immigration, the Constitution and government spending.
