Grassroots groups have outlined a type of performance improvement plan for embattled Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The groups can make Schumer’s life very difficult, by organizing protests against him and his members or dangling potential primary challengers. And they want to see changes in how he leads his caucus.
- “I should be the leader. … I am sort of the orchestra leader, and I have a lot of talent in that orchestra,” Schumer said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View.”
- Schumer and his advisers have heard from groups across the Democratic Party spectrum, from the leftist Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) to Moveon.org and the more establishment Indivisible.
Their top three demands:
- More seats at the table: The groups want to influence the discussion earlier in the process and a more proactive plan to battle Republicans.
- Elevate younger voices in the party, especially Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y). Schumer brought Murphy and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), known for their media savvy, into his leadership team this year.
- Go on offense. They want more fight from Schumer — and are pushing him to encourage his members to host town halls in their states’ redder areas if the GOP representatives don’t. “It is a source of real pain for the Republican Party when veterans and Trump voters in Republican districts have a voice,” PCCC co-founder Adam Green told Axios.
Zoom in: Second-guessing by the party’s liberal grassroots groups can quickly aggravate elected leaders, who were “pissed” at the groups last month.
- Schumer has taken a public pounding from his party’s base, not to mention House Democrats, since voting to keep the government open last week.
- “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing. I think that’s what happened the other day,” House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday at a town hall. (Pelosi also said she’s confident in Schumer’s leadership.)
The bottom line: Schumer has gone on a media tour to defend his actions, arguing that shutting down the government would have been irresponsible.
- The Democratic groups argue Schumer was caught flatfooted in dealing with the GOP’s government funding bill over the last month.
