For a while, it seemed like McConnell was single-handedly blocking the entirety of the US government from his vantage as the minority leader, an arrangement Schumer just hasn’t been able to crack. It’s not impossible, however: Unlike in the House, which only requires a majority vote among its 435 members, the Senate has a 60-vote threshold for most items to pass its 100-member body. This gives the minority leverage. While Republicans may have a trifecta, they can’t pass a single piece of legislation without Democratic votes. With the Democrats out of power, it’s the only area of the government where they can exert any influence.
Instead of wielding that power, my Senate source says, Schumer instructed members to not make any demands back in March, “because he wanted Republicans to take the blame when the government shut down.” At the time, Schumer was losing support from members to support keeping the government open, even though our reporting showed a frightening alternative.
“You don’t get credit for things you prevent from happening,” Frank says of the averted shutdown.
At the very least, Democrats would like Schumer, or Schumer’s successor, to take a page out of the Nancy Pelosi playbook, back from when she was House speaker. She was known to encourage candidates in competitive districts to run against her as Speaker—even pledging to vote against her for the role—if it gave them a better shot of winning, as long as she could count on them for tough votes once they arrived in Congress.
“He doesn’t just need Michigan and Maine and Texas,” the campaign consultant says of Schumer. “He needs Missouri and Kansas and places where they should be running specifically against Schumer in ads.”
Jentleson points to Reid, his former boss, as an example of how this can play out. Early in his tenure, Democratic candidates in red states would run against him as leader.
The rub for Schumer, whose office did not return a request for comment, is that this would involve people saying mean things about him.
“Again, this comes down to Schumer being congenitally incapable of being criticized by anyone,” the Senate aide says. “He wants everyone to love him all the time.”
This is an edition of Jake Lahut’s Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.