Sen. Elissa Slotkin left open a run for Senate majority leader on Saturday, saying Democrats need a new generation of leadership after the midterms while Chuck Schumer says he expects to keep the top job.
What she said at Crooked Con
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., declined Saturday to rule out a bid for Senate majority leader when she spoke at Crooked Con, a post-midterm Democratic conference in Washington, D.C., according to USA Today and CNN.
“I’ve been very vocal that we need a new generation of leadership. We couldn’t have gotten a clearer signal than Tuesday,” Slotkin said, according to USA Today, which cited conference organizers.
Asked whether she would run, she did not say no. “It’s an open field and I think those conversations are happening quickly among Democrats,” she said, according to CNN. “I don’t have big announcements to make, but those conversations are happening right now.”
“I’m not ruling anything out,” she added, per CNN. She also said it was up to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to convince Democrats that he has a plan for how the party should use its new power after Democrats flipped both chambers in the midterms.
Other Democrats push for a debate
Earlier Saturday at the same event, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told the crowd there should be no “coronation” of the next Senate Democratic leader.
“We need to have a discussion in the Democratic caucus,” Van Hollen said, according to CNN. “Nobody should get a blank check without a full understanding from the caucus as to where we’re going to go.” Van Hollen told CNN that running for majority leader himself is “not my focus.” He has separately said he is weighing a 2028 presidential campaign.
Schumer’s side
Schumer has said he expects to remain the party’s Senate leader. “The issue is not me. I’ll be re-elected as majority leader. The issue is focusing on the American people and what they want,” he said Wednesday at Democratic Senate campaign headquarters, according to HuffPost.
Schumer needs a majority of the Democratic caucus in a private vote. Democrats are projected to hold at least 54 Senate seats once the new Congress begins in January, with Alaska and Mississippi still counting votes that could change the final margin, according to CNN and NBC News. Schumer’s office had not issued a fresh public response Saturday evening specifically addressing Slotkin’s Crooked Con remarks.
Why it matters
Senate leadership will shape how Democrats use investigations, spending bills and negotiations with the White House for the last two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, was elected to the House in 2018 and the Senate in 2024 and gave the Democratic response to Trump’s 2025 address to Congress. Schumer has led Senate Democrats since 2017. Slotkin’s remarks come the same day she also answered Trump on X over his call for a Justice Department probe naming her, an earlier exchange HISARAK covered separately.
