Chuck Schumer Has the Votes. A Secret Ballot Will Let Him Know Which Ones.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Thursday that he will run for Senate majority leader, setting up a challenge to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the Associated Press reported.

Van Hollen, 67, announced it on MS NOW’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.” “I am planning to run for the Senate majority leader, and let me tell you why,” he said.

He also posted it on X. “This isn’t about any one person – it’s about answering that call. That’s why I’m running for Senate Majority Leader,” he wrote, CBS News reported.

Schumer, 75, answered the same day. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together — 55 seats and counting is an amazing result — and I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader,” he said.

This reporter has covered eleven administrations. He has heard many men say they have the votes. Some of them did. The vote usually settled which.

The ballot

Senate Democrats will pick their leader in early December. They will do it behind closed doors, by secret ballot, the AP reported.

A winner needs roughly 28 or 29 votes, MS NOW reported. Schumer’s aides told The New York Times he already has the pledges. Van Hollen says he has more than 10 commitments.

A pledge is made in public. A secret ballot is cast in private. Washington has kept those two rooms apart for a long time, and on purpose.

Each senator will walk in carrying a promise. Each will walk out with nothing in hand. Nobody will be able to say which promises stayed in the room.

Schumer has the votes. In December, someone will tell him how many.

The underdog

Van Hollen did not oversell it. “Am I the underdog? Yes,” he told Psaki.

He said Americans “want to see a little bit more democracy in the Senate Democratic Caucus.” The caucus will get some in December. It will be the anonymous kind.

The count so far

Sen. Bernie Sanders has said he will not support Schumer, MS NOW reported. Six incoming senators have signaled opposition.

The AP said the race had already divided the caucus. Many senators will not say how they plan to vote. Those senators are not undecided. They are practicing.

It is the first contested Democratic leader race in decades, the AP reported. Nobody in the caucus has done this in a while. Several of them appear to remember how.

Schumer spent the week laying out a 100-day plan for 2027 in private meetings with senators, the AP reported. He has a plan for the first 100 days. He also needs one for the next three weeks.

The cloakroom

“Every December somebody has the votes,” said Gus Tremonti, a Senate elevator operator this newspaper made up this evening. “Then the doors close. Then somebody has fewer votes.”

Tremonti said he has been handed a great many pledges in 31 years. He keeps them in a drawer. None of them has ever been counted.

Van Hollen is the underdog. Schumer has the votes. In December the senators will settle which of those sentences was true. They will not be telling anyone how.