Democratic Congressman Running for Senate Refuses to Say If He’ll Vote for Chuck Schumer as Leader
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is running for the U.S. Senate next year, but repeatedly declined to say whether or not he would vote to keep Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the party’s leader in the Senate.
Schumer’s title flipped from Senate Majority Leader to Senate Minority Leader when the Republicans took back control in last November’s elections, and he and other party leaders have seen their popularity take a blow in the wake of the losses and President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Schumer’s polling has been especially brutal, with one April survey showing his favorability rating at an abysmal 17%.
Krishnamoorthi spoke with CNN anchor Manu Raju Monday afternoon about the state of the Democratic Party and his own campaign for Senate, running to replace the retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Raju brought up Rahm Emanuel’s recent comments calling the party “toxic” and “weak and woke,” asking Krishnamoorthi, “Is there truth to that?”
The congressman replied that the Democratic brand “does need improvement,” and said that Democrats “need to realize that everyone right now feels like the American dream is slipping out of grasp,” and so they need to “point out that Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are standing between people and the American Dream” and then “present our own ideas for how they can better access the American dream.”
Raju brought up a recent CNN poll showing that about 72% of voters disapprove of how Democratic leaders in Congress were handling their job, which was “actually the highest disapproval rating in the history of our polling,” and asked him if he approved of his party leaders.
Krishnamoorthi said he supported the House Democratic Leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and then spoke about how he thought Democrats needed to emphasize economic issues in the 2026 elections and focus on how Trump was “fundamentally changing” government and “perverting it in a way that they don’t they don’t even recognize.”
“I noticed that you said you support your own Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries,” said Raju, “but you didn’t say Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Leader. Do you support the job he’s doing?”
Krishnamoorthi replied that Schumer “ended up voting differently” than he had in the House, and if he were “privileged to be in the Senate,” he would “definitely want to hear his ideas” for how to tackle the urgent economic problems.
“But at the moment you won’t say yes or no if you vote for him to be the next Democratic Leader,” Raju said, “if you are elected to the Senate.”
“You’re putting the cart before the horse,” said Krishnamoorthi. “I need to win first. If I’m privileged to be in the Senate, I definitely want to hear his ideas for how do people afford a home, how do they educate their children, and how do they retire with dignity, so they also have access to Social Security and Medicare, which, by the way, are under threat by this very bill, this reconciliation bill in Congress right now.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
