With Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) announcing earlier this week that he's retiring and thus will not run for reelection in 2026, there's been calls for another top Democrat, the top Democrat in the Senate to also retire: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He's not up for reelection until 2028, but there's already been chatter that he may face a primary challenge, namely from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It's not looking too good for Schumer, and hasn't for some time during President Donald Trump's second term. Even friendly mainstream media outlets are highlighting as much.
It's always interesting to see CNN's Harry Enten highlight the numbers on air, especially when he stuns CNN anchors. On Thursday morning, he appeared on "CNN News Central," where he highlighted those unwelcome numbers for Democrats and Schumer in particular. Host John Berman spoke to how Durbin announcing his retirement and other Democrats looking to succeed him in leadership roles comes "as Democrats are trying to chart a course forward and they are facing headwinds."
As if it weren't clear enough that Democrats are in serious disarray, when Berman asked Enten "how much has [Democrats'] confidence fallen in their leaders," Enten emphasized it's bad enough to be considered "a revolt."
"Yes. This, I think, is a revolt, a revolt that is going on within the Democratic Party right now, Democrats and their leaders. I mean, take a look nationally. Hello, Democrats on Dem leaders in Congress. The belief that they will do the right thing when it comes to the economy, last year at this time, 80 percent believe that the Democratic leaders in Congress would do the right thing when it comes to the economy. And keep in mind, this is Democrats," he offered, referring to a Gallup poll.
"Look at where we are now," he shifted to, pointing to the latest 2025 numbers, which we covered earlier this week. "That number has been slashed in half to just 39 percent. Holy Toledo, that is the lowest number by far in Gallup polling. The lowest previous was just 60 percent, which is 21 points higher than this. Democrats hate, hate, hate what their congressional leaders in Washington are doing right now on the key issue of the day, the economy, and their confidence has fallen through the floor," Enten continued to emphasize.
That brings us to Schumer, who has the unfortunate position of leading the Democrats in the Senate currently. As Berman asked, "How are feelings about him, particularly in New York?"
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It turns out that they're not great. "New York Democrats on Chuck Schumer view him favorably in December of 2024. That was just a few months ago," Enten pointed out, though it's also key that Trump was not yet president. "It was 73 percent. Look at where that number has fallen to in just a few months. It is now down to just 52 percent. That is the lowest I could ever find in Siena College on how Democrats in Chuck Schumer's home state view him," he continued.
Those are the latest numbers according to a Siena College poll released earlier this week, and Enten isn't wrong about those being the lowest numbers he could find. "Schumer: His Worst Favorability Rating (39-49%) in 2 Decades of Siena College Polls," a takeaway from the poll reads.
"It is the first time his favorability rating has been negative since June 2024, and the worst it has ever been in a Siena College poll dating back to February 2005," the poll's write-up mentioned about Schumer.
Pollster Steven Greenberg was also quoted with more to say about Schumer's poor ratings. "A first in a Siena College poll: Schumer is 10 points underwater, with a plurality of voters viewing him unfavorably. While he continues to be viewed unfavorably by more than two-thirds of Republicans and a majority of independents, Schumer saw his standing with Democrats, particularly liberals, fall dramatically," Greenberg is quoted as saying. "Democrats view Schumer favorably 52-38%, down from 68-23%, and he’s still viewed favorably by a plurality of liberals, 47-41%, but that’s down from 68-21%. New York City voters are barely favorable, 47-44%."
The poll also referenced AOC's ratings, who has meanwhile experienced her best favorability rating. "Among eight elected officials and each house of the State Legislature, AOC has the best favorability rating. She is viewed favorably by 64% of Democrats – more than Hochul or Schumer – and she is viewed unfavorably by 60% of Republicans. Independents are evenly divided 39-39%," Greenberg said about her. "While Schumer’s fifth term runs through 2028, Ocasio-Cortez has established herself as a New York Democrat to watch."
Sure enough, Enten also warned of a primary. "And keep in mind, if you're thinking about a primary challenge, it would be a few years away, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's favorable rating among Democrats is considerably higher, in the 60s. So, he is doing quite poorly in his own home state of New York. I never thought I'd see the day in which just 52 percent of New York Democrats would view Chuck Schumer favorably? It's almost unfathomable," Enten added.
There was a pretty quick answer when Enten was asked why Schumer's numbers are what they are. "It's because they, simply put, don't like the job he's doing as Senate leader." He went on to bring up more unwelcome numbers, this time from a Marist University poll.
That poll's write-up contained two headers on Schumer, including how "Schumer’s Approval Rating Drops" and how "Majority Calls for Schumer to be Replaced as Senate Minority Leader," which is 53 percent of overall New York voters.
"I mean, look at this. Should Schumer stay as Senate leader? Again, according to New York Democrats, just 50 percent say yes. Look at this number, 48 percent say no. This screams sirens should be going off, primary challenge, primary challenge, primary challenge. When you are a Democrat in New York and these are your ratings, this is a big wakeup call if you're Chuck Schumer," Enten concluded.
There's a revolt among Dem voters & sirens should be going off at Chuck Schumer's office.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) April 24, 2025
-A record low 39% trust their leaders in Congress to do the right thing on the economy
-In NY, Schumer's favorable is down 21 pts from Dec. & just 50% of Dems say he should remain leader! pic.twitter.com/7fEQR24q0R
Enten referenced polls from Gallup, Siena College, and Marist University. Late last poll, a poll was also conducted by Data for Progress and released this month, showing that AOC is particularly popular among New York Democrats. Further, she enjoys a healthy lead against Schumer in a primary, even when negative statements are read about her to respondents.
It's not just CNN. On Thursday night, MSNBC's Ari Melber did a segment highlighting Durbin's announcement, exploring if it's time that Schumer step aside. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) took to Fox News and a post over X to make such a case, but these are outlets more friendly to Schumer we're talking about here.
Melber mentioned not just AOC and a primary challenge, but potentially "put[ting] the pressure on [Schumer]" The show then played a clip of Schumer insisting in a media appearance of his own that he wasn't going to step aside.
"Right now, I am focused on showing the American people how bad Trump's economics are for them," Schumer claimed. Given his numbers in Gallup, that doesn't look to be a winning strategy.
However, as Melber highlighted, Democrats are publicly standing by Schumer, since he is "the de facto leader of the party with the most senior job and the most senior part of the national political machinery." In that case, Democrats can likely expect to keep losing then, though it's not surprising Melber didn't want to get into that. Melber did however, mention that this does indeed sound like "public groupthink," and even compared it to how Democrats publicly stood by a clearly declining President Joe Biden for so long.
There's also the desire for "a new wave of younger officials," as Melber spoke to, which was also highlighted in that Data for Progress poll, and has been coming from those like David Hogg, a DNC vice chairman, which has caused even more disarray for the party.
When did these troubles for Schumer start? Again, Democrats aren't too thrilled with how their party is handling the second Trump term, which truly shows them in disarray. That Schumer claimed last month that Republicans didn't have enough votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on their continuing resolution (CR) that had just passed the House, with help from Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, and even that Democrats were "unified," only to cave a day later, certainly didn't help him. It may have even been the beginning of the end. Even though Schumer didn't actually vote for the final passage of the CR, he still voted to advance it, which didn't help him, least of all with AOC.
That move certainly put Schumer at odds with his fellow Democrats, including fellow New Yorkers, who took an awful long time to say they stood by Schumer, in House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' case, if they did at all.
While it's true that Schumer isn't actually up for reelection in 2026, it's still worth wondering if his party has enough confidence in him to elect him to a leadership position come January 2027. New Yorkers might not want that, yet he still thinks he will be. He even thinks he'll be elected as the majority leader, as he told Semafor just on Wednesday of this week.
DELUSIONAL: Democrat Chuck Schumer thinks voters will reward his party of MS-13 sympathizers with a majority in the U.S. Senate.
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) April 24, 2025
Q: "Do you think you'll be majority leader in 2027?"
Schumer: "In 2027, I believe I will." pic.twitter.com/QZtO6sz8UZ
