Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, did not rule out whether she'll challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, for majority leader when pressed at a Washington, DC, event Nov. 7, according to organizers.
“I’ve been very vocal that we need a new generation of leadership. We couldn’t have gotten a clearer signal than Tuesday," Slotkin said at Crooked Con, an annual political conference hosted by the progressive Crooked Media, which was founded by former aides to President Barack Obama.
The comment comes days after the Democrats' sweeping midterm victories, giving them majority control of both chambers of Congress. Democratic lawmakers will select party leadership to head the party's
legislative priorities in the final two years of the President Donald Trump's administration.
Newly elected Senate Democrats are already saying they are unsure if Schumer is the right leader for the party. Incoming senators said they will need a strong leader to accomplish what they promised voters, and lately many in the party have soured on Schumer, a moderate who has been unable to stop Trump from reshaping the country.
Schumer has served as the party's Senate leader – both in the minority and majority – for almost a decade, but the 75-year-old lawmaker is not an automatic shoo-in for the role this time around.
The party is having its own internal battle between moderate, established Democrats and younger, more progressive members who rose in the 2026 midterms, often during the primaries.
Who is Elissa Slotkin?
In March 2025, Slotkin emerged as a prominent voice in the party when she delivered the Democratic response to Trump's State of the Union address. Only a few months into her new role as a senator, and coming off a win in a state that the president carried in the same election, Slotkin spoke about "responsible" versus "reckless" ways to make change for Americans. In her speech, she talked about bringing down prices to help the middle class, slamming Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and securing the border while fixing the immigration system.
She also made headlines as one of the "seditious six" lawmakers targeted by Pentagon chief Pete Hegsethin in 2025 in response to a video telling the military to not obey illegal orders. The Department of Justice was not successful in indicting the lawmakers.
Slotkin was elected to the Senate in 2024 after serving in the House of Representatives since 2019. She brands herself as a moderate Democrat, highlighting her background as a former CIA analyst who served three tours alongside the military in Iraq and held national security roles at the Pentagon and the White House under the Bush and Obama administrations.
Contibuting: Michael Loria
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Slotkin won't rule out challenging Schumer for Senate majority leader
