Van Hollen Challenges Schumer for Senate Majority Leader

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Greetings once again and welcome to Political Science. It's Friday, November 13th. Let's see what the hell's been going on.

Chuck Schumer has an opponent. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Thursday night that he will run for Senate majority leader, in what the Associated Press calls the first contested Democratic leadership election in the Senate in decades. "In this election, the American people called for change," Van Hollen said. "It's now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership."

Two days ago this was a complaint without a candidate. Bernie Sanders had said he would not support Schumer, several newly elected senators were holding back, and Schumer could fairly point out that nobody was running against him. Now somebody is. Van Hollen is 67 and was elected to the Senate in 2016. He told MS NOW that more than ten senators have committed to him, a number nobody outside the caucus can check. Asked whether he is the underdog, he said, "Yes."

Here is how it gets decided. Democrats will have at least 55 senators in their caucus, so winning takes at least 28. They vote in early December, behind closed doors, by secret ballot. A senator can praise Schumer on television, vote against him, and no one will ever know.

Schumer is 75 and has led the caucus since 2017, when he ran unopposed. His answer: "I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader." His best argument came from Angus King of Maine: "Why would you fire the manager when you just won the World Series?" Van Hollen's reply is that Schumer's incumbency is "part of the problem." The two men do not differ much on policy. Van Hollen is selling a different way of running the caucus, including leaders staying out of open primaries. Michigan's senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed endorsed him Thursday.

President Trump took the Iran portfolio away from his vice president on Thursday, by social media post. JD Vance led the talks in Pakistan that produced a truce in June, and The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that he was considering meeting a senior Iranian security official in person. Trump's response: "We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We've got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we've got their Strait!" He directed Vance to put "his complete and total attention" on alleged corruption in Democratic-run cities and states. A week ago Vance said the war cost Republicans the midterms. His new assignment is fraud in places like Minnesota. As for the strait, Iran's military said four oil tankers were hit by explosions Thursday after ignoring its warnings.

Ukraine says its military satellite links have been slowed again, and some of its officials suspect Washington is doing it on purpose. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink, has for several days been capped at 100 miles an hour along the whole front. Ukrainian interceptor drones have to fly faster than that to catch Russia's jet-powered attack drones. "These are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions," he said. The same thing happened in mid-October. According to the Financial Times, senior Ukrainian officials believe the slowdown was meant to pressure Kyiv during this week's peace talks. They offered no proof, and SpaceX's answer was, "This is false. There has been no change."

Those talks did move one thing. After two hours with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Steve Witkoff said "the Europeans will join at the next meeting." The Kremlin says Europe first has to name a single representative.

Senate Republicans have about seven weeks left in the majority and roughly two dozen of Trump's judicial nominees to confirm, and the people slowing them down are other Republicans. CNN reports that a committee vote on two Oklahoma nominees fell apart this week because Oklahoma's own junior senator, Republican Alan Armstrong, opposes one of them. In Arkansas, the White House dropped an appeals court pick after the state's senators objected, and the replacement needs a new hearing. Democrats can add delay of their own: each appeals court nominee can take up to 30 hours of floor debate.

The Dutch government got its budget Thursday in the strangest available way. Parliament passed the 2027 tax plan 76 to 74, and the business-friendly VVD, one of the three governing parties, voted against its own cabinet's plan because of the new wealth tax. Prime Minister Rob Jetten meets his deputies this morning, and the VVD has not said whether it is staying.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced a package on women's rights. He plans to change the 2022 rule from Viktor Orbán's government that makes a woman seeking an abortion first get proof of the fetus's vital signs, generally understood as the heartbeat. Magyar said the rule did not reduce abortions and added trauma. Emergency contraception would no longer need a prescription, and Hungary would ratify the Istanbul Convention on violence against women. These are proposals so far.

And on Veterans Day, an Army sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier called out, "All visitors will maintain an atmosphere of silence and respect at all times." The call appeared to be aimed at a group talking and taking pictures on the steps: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, his wife and his aides. On Thursday Hegseth pinned a medal on the sentinel, Specialist Thomas Iglesias, and wrote, "We love standards."

That should do it for today. And remember, if you keep your expectations low, you'll never be disappointed. Thanks for listening, see you next time.