Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is facing harsh criticism from within his own party, says he is confident that the Democratic Party is back on track. After supporting a Republican-backed stopgap spending bill that cut funding for several non-defense programs, which many saw as a mistake, Schumer says the party now has “a real direction.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Schumer explained that President Donald Trump’s approach to reducing government spending to fund tax cuts has helped define the Democratic Party as the party that stands for working people, despite concerns that some Democrats might have strayed from that message.
“I don’t think we have an authenticity problem,” Schumer told The Times. “We have a real direction now. I feel good about it,” the embattled leader proclaimed.
“We are the party of working people. We feel that very, very strongly. That’s who we have always been,” he emphasized.
While Schumer remains optimistic, others, like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), have criticized the party for losing touch with working-class Americans after their losses in the 2024 election. Sanders, in particular, said the party’s leaders have defended the “status quo” and abandoned working-class voters.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said.
Brown also voiced concern, stating on social media earlier this month that the Democratic Party’s reputation has become “toxic” and no longer represents workers. He called on the party to return to its roots and reconnect with the middle class and working class voters.
When Schumer was asked about the perception that the Democratic Party no longer represents workers, he agreed that this had become an issue, but said the party is working to change that.
“That’s right, and that’s where we’re moving. That’s where we have to move,” Schumer said.
Schumer believes that the party’s values have remained the same, but its message became unclear in recent years. He admitted that while Democrats have done a lot to help working people, they failed to effectively communicate those accomplishments.
“We lost it,” he said. “We always cared about the working people. But in the last few years, while we did a lot for working people, here’s what we didn’t do: We didn’t tell people about it.”
Schumer pointed out that Democrats thought passing good legislation would be enough for people to notice, but that wasn’t the case. He sees this as one of the biggest mistakes the party made under President Biden’s leadership.
