Dear, Dems: READ THE ROOM! Schumer and Jeffries are not the ones

Some Democratic politicians in Washington seem oddly emboldened by the midterm election results. But Mitch, why wouldn’t they be? you might ask. It was a historic victory, a blue tsunami! Sure, it looks like Dems will pick up nine Senate seats without losing any and perhaps 45 House seats, and that even after all that GOP gerrymandering, they'll lose only four. Just months ago, that would have seemed impossible. But it’s important to look at what voters embraced and rejected as the party plots a path forward into governance.

By and large, exit polling suggests two instructive things. First, this was a vote against President Trump and his failed policies. His schizophrenic tariffs reversed the trend of declining inflation under President Biden. Trump promised no new wars in the Middle East and then started one, which he then falsely claimed had actually been happening for decades, despite the fact that he had previously claimed that both President Obama and 2024 opponent Kamala Harris would “get us into a war with Iran.” Gas prices skyrocketed, and inflation kept climbing. 

ICE and CBP shooting Americans in the streets, lawlessly detaining American citizens, and rounding up anyone with brown skin and an accent proved immensely unpopular, and the naked corruption of a President multiplying his wealth by selling pardons, grifting on a meme coin, and getting opaque crypto deals didn’t play well either, especially as so many Americans struggled to put food on the table. Ditto for forcing data centers on communities and going all in on an unregulated technology that is likely to put a historic number of Americans out of work in the near future. 

In a two-party system, a president going so hard against the public's will is undoubtedly going to benefit the other party at the polls. Democrats are estimated to have won the House popular vote by about 13 percentage points, nearly twice the Republican margin in the 2010s Tea Party wave. That is the second-largest national House popular vote margin in a midterm election since 1942, trailing only the 1974 post-Watergate election. Yet despite that “success,” the Democratic Party has a 44% favorable rating, compared with 51% unfavorable.

Now, let’s look at the candidates who had the most impressive victories. They all seem to have some things in common. They ran on platforms that included reforming ICE, giving communities more local control when it came to data centers, and, most of all, progressive economic populism, which included championing issues like Medicare for all, protecting Social Security, universal childcare, affordable housing, and ending both the war in Iran and our completely unsustainable military support for Israel. High-profile Democratic primaries further showed how important those issues are to voters, as AIPAC-sponsored corporate neoliberals were taken down by progressives no matter how much money the establishment threw at the races.

If Democrats do not immediately govern as if they understand the mandate they have inherited, they will quickly lose the support of many of the people who have empowered them to govern, and I do not believe they’ll get it back anytime soon. This starts with leadership. The establishment has made it clear it wants to keep the status quo, with Chuck Schumer as Democratic Senate leader and Nancy Pelosi-appointed Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House. This is what is sometimes referred to as ballistic podiatry, or shooting oneself in the foot.

First, Schumer and Jeffries did everything they could during the primary to support establishment, pro-Israel Democrats against progressive Dems. They represent the hawkish, corporate-friendly, right-of-center neoliberalism that American voters roundly rejected in 2016 and again in 2024. What’s more, you can read their success in 2020 as equally driven by how badly Trump governed in his first term, and consider that after four years of neoliberalism, they were once again willing to try a proven con man over more of the same.

Chuck “strongly worded letter” Schumer is an out-of-touch, feckless fossil of a pol who has zero chance of winning a Democratic primary in two years when he’ll be put to pasture. He has no business leading a conga line, let alone a political party. What’s more, his approval rating is actually lower than Trump’s! At 23% in a post-midterm poll, he's 15 points lower than one of the most unpopular presidents in history. Jefferies is only at 27%. The Democrats have been given a gift, but its billionaire donor class and their favorite politicians seem poised to blow it.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, whom I pegged as a strong candidate for a future presidential run more than a decade ago, has announced he will challenge Schumer, emphasizing healthcare affordability, a living minimum wage, opposition to public subsidies for data centers, and changes to the party's relationship with AIPAC. Meanwhile, both Schumer and Jeffries have resisted Medicare for All, done little to nothing on affordability, and supported the Iran War. Both have been heavily funded by AIPAC and opposed efforts supported by Van Hollen and not only a majority of the newly-elected Dems, but a majority of Americans, to block certain arms transfers to Israel.

Van Hollen does not have an easy road to victory, but it is possible, especially if more Senators and even prominent former officeholders come out in support of him. In the race to 28 votes, 16 are leaning toward Schumer, while 8 are already leaning toward Van Hollen. Dropsite News has a live whip tracker where you can follow the contest. 

On the House side, no one has stepped up to challenge Jeffries yet, but I would be shocked if that remained the case, even though Democrats are scheduled to vote next week, if only because 1.2 million people have signed a petition urging House Dems to pick someone else.

I’m sorry, but Jeffries is just embarrassing. He’s the personification of the empty-suit politician with no core ideology who just moves through the ranks by ingratiating himself to those who control the party’s money and power via fealty to whatever they demand. From his cringy social media posts to his bad Obama speech impersonation and cartoonish hand gesticulations, he has the charisma of a wet dishcloth.

Jeffries was also caught meeting secretly with Jared Kushner just before AIPAC-funded Florida Congressman and self-described "DeSantis Democrat" Jared Moskowitz was named ranking Democrat on the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, and fellow AIPAC darlings Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Wesley Bell were appointed to the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Jeffries also refuses to say whether he supports efforts to strip the Pentagon budget bill of a highly controversial provision to integrate the U.S. and Israeli militaries. He could not even make sure his party had enough people in the chamber to win what should have been a slam dunk vote on impeaching Pete Hegseth for his many war crimes. Jeffries is not the man to meet this moment.

For those Democrats who are aspiring to a presidential run in 2028, they should consider this the first test of their intestinal fortitude, most notably GA Senator Jon Ossoff, who won reelection and emerged as one of the party's most popular figures. House Democrats will vote on November 18–19, while Senate Democrats will wait until Tuesday, December 1. Both will be conducted in a closed-door, secret-ballot election. Let’s hope they manage to keep their feet free of bullet holes.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's new novel, Fish Kill, is currently available here, along with his previous books. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.