Chris Van Hollen Set to Challenge Chuck Schumer for Senate Majority Leader

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland announced on Thursday that he would challenge Senator Chuck Schumer of New York for majority leader, setting up a clash among Democrats just as they were celebrating their new majority and planning for a takeover of Congress in January.The move by Mr.Van Hollen, a progressive Democrat elected to the Senate in 2016 after seven terms in the House representing the Washington, D.C.

suburbs, comes as some Democratic senators and activists have called for an alternative to Mr.Schumer, a moderate whom they regard as too tied to the party establishment to lead a newly energized party forward in the next Congress.Mr.

Van Hollen, who is also said to be weighing a run for president in 2028, had emerged as the favorite to challenge Mr.Schumer for the post and had expressed increasing willingness to do so in recent days.Senate Democrats are scheduled to vote behind closed doors on Dec.

1 to determine who will be their leader when their party takes the Senate majority on Jan.4.“I think there is a big appetite for change within the Democratic Caucus,” Mr.

Van Hollen said in an interview before the announcement.“I think people want to have a system of much more meaningful input, and that’s going to be even more important now that we have this large majority.”His announcement came as Mr.

Schumer and his allies reiterated that the New York Democrat had commitments of support from well over the majority of Senate Democrats needed to re-elect him as leader.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....