Chuck Schumer

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) found himself under intense scrutiny amid questions about whether he was strong enough to counter a more assertive second Trump administration. While the spotlight has since faded a bit, the angst is being felt in the Democrats’ 2026 primary elections.

Chuck Schumer is bruised but not beaten — at least not yet.

Two weeks after the Senate minority leader joined with Republicans to prevent a government shutdown, Democrats are still fuming over how he handled the standoff. But many in the party are conceding that they’re stuck with him for the time being.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision not to block a Republican spending bill earlier this month unleashed a tidal wave of anger within the Democratic Party, prompting calls for him to step aside and shaking his hold on his caucus like never before.

"Look, I'm not stepping down," Schumer told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Schumer said while the spending bill was "certainly bad" and that he had anticipated his support for it would stir controversy, the other option had been to let the government shut down, which would have been "15 or 20 times worse."

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is facing the toughest fight of his Senate leadership career amid sharp attacks from his party’s base over his vote to advance a House Republican-drafted funding bill.

Senate Democratic colleagues say that Schumer, who is 74 years old, isn’t going anywhere as party leader, but they’re questioning his decisionmaking in a way they haven’t during his previous eight years as leader.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) has postponed his book tour scheduled this week in Baltimore, New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia amid an intense backlash from fellow Democrats over his controversial vote to advance a House Republican-drafted funding package that cuts deeply into non-defense programs.

A spokesperson for Schumer’s book tour said that it would be rescheduled due to “security concerns.”

Senate Democrats are bracing for a painful post-mortem as they try to avoid a September rerun of their latest government funding defeat.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and nine of his members helped get a House GOP-authored government funding bill to the finish line, saying a vote to advance legislation they loathed was the least bad option. The alternative, they argued, was allowing a shutdown that could empower President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to accelerate their slashing of the federal bureaucracy.

Ten Senate Democrats voted Friday to help Republicans break a 60-vote filibuster and advance a Trump-backed government funding bill that paves the way for Congress to avoid a midnight shutdown deadline.

The Senate passed a House-approved government funding bill that averts a government shutdown that was set to be triggered at the end of the day Friday.

The Senate voted 54 to 46 to pass the bill. The approval of the bill follows several Democrats voting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to keep the funding bill moving forward despite blowback from other members of their party.

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen voted in favor of the bill. All other Democrats voted against it...