How Can Schumer and Jeffries Be Our Congressional Leaders? [View all]

I've seen several OPs here about how badly we need to replace those two men as our party's Congressional Leadership. That got me wondering how they got those positions at all, given their unpopularity with some Democrats.

Well, Chuck Schumer has been one of the Senators from New York since 1999, winning statewide elections there by up to a 70% majority. He is in his fifth 6-year senate term. Then, in 2017, he was elected as chair of the Senat Democratic Caucus. He has been the Senate Majority or Minority leader since 2017.

Hakeem Jeffries - He has been the NY 8th District Congressman since 2013. He was elected as the House Democratic Caucus Chair in 2019. He became the Democratic House Leader in 2022.

So, both of our Democratic congressional leaders represent the state of New York. They were elected to their offices by voters in that state. They seem popular in New York. I don't vote in New York, so I've never voted for them. Both were elected to their congressional leadership positions by other Democrats in their houses of Congress. I'm not a member of Congress, so I had no vote for those positions, either.

Some people have called out for their replacement in leadership. That would have to be done either by members of Congress voting them out of their positions. As far as I know, no members of Congress are members of DU. So, we don't get a say in that.

The other route to removing them from their leadership positions would be for them not to be elected to Congress at all. That would have to happen in elections in New York state. There's one for the House this November, so New York voters could remove him from office at that time. The trouble there is that Jeffries won in the last election with a 75% majority. Schumer won statewide with a 70% majority. So, that seems unlikely to happen, as well. As I said, I don't vote in New York. No doubt some DUers do, though. Maybe they could try, if that's their goal.

The bottom line here is that both men are popular with their constituencies and in their Democratic caucuses, in Congress. I don't get a vote on that, and neither does anyone else on DU.

So, we have the leadership we have. I may not agree 100% with everything those leaders do, but I support them in their leadership. I assume they know what they're doing better than I do, anyhow.

I don't see any change on the horizon, either. So, I'll continue to work in my own state to elect Democrats to Congress and to my state legislature. That seems to me to be my best opportunity to influence what happens next.