By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Thursday he would run for Senate majority leader, challenging Chuck Schumer, who has led the Democrats in the Senate since 2017, after the Democratic Party won a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections.
Schumer, who is expected to retain his party's leadership in the chamber but previously predicted not having a challenger, released his own statement on Thursday saying he had the votes to continue
as the Democratic leader in the Senate.
The closed-door secret-ballot vote will take place next month.
Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said that in the midterm elections, in which Democrats also secured a majority in the House of Representatives, voters called for "a change from the status quo that isn't working for working people."
"It's now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership," Van Hollen said. "That is why I'm running for Senate Majority Leader."
The 67-year-old told MSNOW in an interview he had the support of more than 10 of the 55 Democratic senators who are known to be voting but acknowledged he was the "underdog" in the race against the 75-year-old Schumer.
Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said they would support Van Hollen, who has been a US senator for nearly a decade and spent 14 years before that in the House of Representatives.
At a press conference earlier this week, Sanders and Democratic US Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan called for new leadership.
Van Hollen, who has hinted at a possible 2028 presidential campaign, has said Democrats need to simultaneously advance multiple goals, including holding President Donald Trump's administration accountable for "gross corruption," trying to end the US-Israeli war on Iran and uniting behind an aggressive economic agenda targeted at working-class Americans.
On the foreign policy front, he has been critical of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and its military assault on Gaza while advocating against deepening defense ties with the US ally.
"I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader," Schumer said in his statement. "I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead."
A few new senators-elect have said they would not support Schumer, a Democrat from New York.
"Midterms are a referendum on the party in power, but I also think this was a plea for a new kind of politics," Van Hollen said last week, telling Reuters that Democrats should not be overly cautious in going after corporations, billionaires and special interests that voters blame for making their lives harder.
Following the midterm elections, Democrats will hold at least 55 seats in the Senate, with Republicans holding 44.
The race for a seat from Alaska has not yet been called, with the Democratic candidate holding a 2.2% lead over the Republican, with 88% of the votes counted as of late Thursday.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Kate Mayberry)
