I have to give Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) some credit. He recruited Gov. Janet Mills for Maine's Senate race because he knew Graham Platner couldn't win in the general election. That was sound electoral math. But the Democrat Party base didn't see strategy. They never do. They saw betrayal, and Schumer has spent the months since watching his political capital drain away.
Now he's giving away what little leverage he has left. Schumer recently endorsed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who has attacked him repeatedly and openly said he won't back Schumer for Senate majority leader if Democrats retake the chamber. El-Sayed instead threw his support behind Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for that job, with the explicit goal of pushing Medicare for All through Congress.
Schumer endorsed him anyway, just like he begrudgingly endorsed Graham Platner before his campaign imploded.
It's probably too late for Schumer to stop the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party, and that may end up costing him his Senate seat in 2028. It isn't clear yet whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will be the one to primary him. But trust me, if she doesn't, someone else will. El-Sayed's ability to win a statewide Democrat primary in Michigan proves a socialist candidate can beat an establishment favorite outside a safe House district.
And New York is a far bluer state than Michigan.
Schumer deserves plenty of blame for his own possible demise. He has casually dismissed concerns about the Democratic Socialists of America, arguing, in effect, that the group belongs inside the Democratic National Committee simply because not every member agrees on every issue. You know, all that. That's a remarkable thing to shrug off for an organization that has openly admitted it hates the U.S. Constitution. When pressed on the extreme agenda of DSA-aligned candidates, Schumer and other Democrat leaders give the same answer every time: the party needs to win elections. That's the entire defense for cozying up to a group that opposes the country's core institutions and values.
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"The Democrat Party's 'Big Tent' is not big enough for establishment moderates," Former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg said earlier this month. "He and other moderates have to go." You can see that hostility already in how the party treats Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a far-left Democrat who supports stronger borders, opposes socialism, and stands with Israel. That's apparently enough today to make him unwelcome in the Democrats’ so-called “big tent.”
Democrats are willing to align themselves with a faction that wants to tear down American institutions, including the very Senate Schumer serves in, because they know that’s where the real energy is. But the question isn't whether the DSA can be managed once it fully controls the Democrat Party. It's whether Democrats will ever get the party back at all.
