I Was One of the First People to Say “Don't Run, Joe.” Now I'm Saying “Step Down, Chuck."

Senate Democrats’ collapse in the latest government funding fight is just the latest example of the party’s inability to advance bold members to positions of power, opting instead for milquetoast and uninspiring leadership.

By Sam Rosenthal

In late 2022, RootsAction, the organization where I serve as political director, called for Joe Biden not to run for re-election. We were, we felt, simply saying out loud what had been whispered within the party for months—that Biden was too weak, politically and personally, to stop Donald Trump from winning a second term. Party activists and the international press took us seriously, but among party elites and the mainstream U.S. media we were alternately derided and ignored.

Biden did ultimately heed our advice, but nearly two years too late. The cataclysmic effects of that disastrous delay are now playing out.

By now, of course, it is common wisdom that Biden should not have sought re-election, almost no matter whom you ask. Despite that, the Democratic Party has apparently learned very little from the Biden debacle. The same tendencies which enabled Biden’s ego-driven march for a second term are still on display today: deference to seniority, fear of bucking decorum, and a general strategic paralysis that has taken hold of the Democratic Party since Trump first won the presidency in 2016.

Senate Democrats’ collapse in the latest government funding fight is just the latest example of the party’s inability to advance bold members to positions of power, opting instead for milquetoast and uninspiring leadership.

By the end of this week, the funding “deal” that Senate Democrats have enabled will likely be on the books, as House Democrats will be unable to stop the legislation from making its way to Trump’s desk. After enduring the longest government shutdown in history, what Senate Democrats have to show for their capitulation is a promise from Republican leaders that there will, eventually, be a vote on extending the health care premiums assistance over which Democrats had ostensibly withheld their votes in the first place.

Those Democrats achieved nothing to restore Medicaid cuts. And with Republicans unlikely to back legislation bolstering the Affordable Care Act, Democrats have squandered the strategic leverage they held in the budget fight and likely doomed more millions of Americans to a future without adequate healthcare.

While many Democrats bear responsibility for caving on this fight—especially the seven Democrats and one independent who voted for the Republican budget proposal in the Senate—no one individual is more responsible than the Senate minority leader: Chuck Schumer. While Schumer himself voted against the proposal, a party leader’s responsibility goes far beyond his own votes in Congress. He or she is chiefly responsible for leading the party’s caucus, especially through difficult votes. That Schumer allowed his caucus to splinter in this critical standoff is a resounding indictment of his leadership.

Recent polling showed voters blaming Republicans more than Democrats for the government shutdown and the ensuing disorder it created. That same polling also showed a majority of voters of any party agreeing that Democrats should continue to hold the line on healthcare funding cuts, even if it meant prolonging the shutdown. And, Democrats just welcomed a slew of wins on Election Day, with strong evidence that voters are already tiring of Trump’s nihilistic second term.  With the political winds in their favor, why would Democratic leadership allow its members to take an unpopular and politically costly vote?

In moments like these, Democrats often resort to arguments about electability—that is, that members need to take votes that may not be popular with the majority sentiment within the Democratic Party to appease voters in their district or state. However, none of the eight Democrats who voted for the Republican-led funding bill are up for re-election in 2026. To argue that these candidates would have been held to account for voting against reopening the government, in 2025, in the 2028 election cycle or beyond stretches credulity.

We are left to conclude that the party suffered from a lack of clear leadership, and for this, Schumer bears sole responsibility. Without a steady hand on the rudder, Senate Democrats fractured and failed to hold the line in a battle they had themselves set up.

This failure comes on the heels of numerous missteps Schumer has recently made. These include his refusal to endorse or embrace Zohran Mamdani (whom RootsAction was among the first national groups to endorse), the mayor-elect of New York City, even while Schumer’s corporatist Democrat colleagues grudgingly came to support the charismatic rising star. Schumer also has declined to put any distance between himself and the ongoing genocide in Gaza perpetrated by Israel. Even as polling shows that just 10% of Democrats support Israel’s military actions, Schumer posed for photos with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his most recent visit to the U.S.

Simply put, Schumer is not the man for the moment. The Democrats will remain out of power in Congress at least until January 2027. For the party to stay relevant and attract voters, it must win the public relations war against Republicans and Trump. This means taking bold, principled stances, and defending those positions, even under intense pressure from Republicans. Schumer is either unwilling or unable to lead the party in these efforts. Many within his own party have taken notice, too. In the last few days, House members like Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna, Seth Moulton and others have harshly criticized Schumer’s leadership ability; Khanna has explicitly called for Schumer to leave the leader position.

Other Democrats and fellow travelers stand ready to pick up the mantle: Bernie Sanders, for example, is still the most popular elected official in the country, and he has consistently argued that Democrats should take stronger stances against Trump. Or, Schumer could abdicate his role in favor of a younger and actually progressive senator, facilitating a generational change of the guard that has lately eluded the party.

Biden’s failure to recognize that he had fallen out of favor with his own party led directly to the waking nightmare of the second Trump administration. Let’s not make the same mistakes. It’s time for new leadership that’s aligned with the desires of Democratic Party voters: to fight Trumpism and push for progressive populism that speaks directly to the economic needs of working people.

Sam Rosenthal is the political director at RootsAction. He formerly served on the steering committee of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Commission.