Likely Michigan Senate candidate: It's time for Schumer to step back
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D), a likely candidate for her state's open U.S. Senate seat, said she thinks it’s time for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to step back.
“I think it is,” McMorrow said in a Politico magazine interview published Tuesday, when asked whether it’s time for Schumer to step back.
“There’s still this idea that Democrats and Republicans are still abiding by the same rules and still believe in the same norms and systems and structure,” she continued. “There seems to be a lack of recognition that this is no longer the Republican Party. This is a MAGA party. And the same approach is not going to work.”
McMorrow, seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, said when asked directly in the interview that she doesn’t think it’s clear that Schumer, who is 74, knows when to step aside.
The state senator, who is 38, criticized both parties for resisting generational change and for behaving as if “stepping back is a sign of weakness and a failure.”
“I don’t know if that is just the pressures of the job, but I think it’s a strength,” McMorrow said. “I think it’s like anything: You work really hard, Chuck Schumer has dedicated his life to public service and fought a lot of really great fights, and it can be time to step back. And those things are not mutually exclusive.”
McMorrow openly discussed in the interview her interest in entering what is expected to be a highly contentious Democratic primary race in 2026 for the open Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.).
McMorrow indicated she would not support another leadership term for Schumer if she were elected to the Senate next year.
“I would look for other leadership who understands that it’s a different moment,” McMorrow said when asked whether she would vote for Schumer to be the leader again.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Nancy Pelosi, who, similarly, while still in Congress, recognized it is time to have new leadership who can build up that muscle to respond to the moment,” she continued, referring to the longtime House Speaker who still represents her California district but stepped aside from her leadership post.
McMorrow said she has not spoken to Schumer about a possible Senate run but noted she reached out to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) “to let them know that I was exploring.”
“I’m somebody, every time that I’ve run for anything, I don’t like surprising people. I want them to know who I am and how to get a hold of me,” she said in the interview.
McMorrow grabbed the national spotlight in 2022 after a viral speech in which she addressed a GOP colleague’s fundraising email that accused her of grooming and sexualizing kindergartners.
She spoke on the first day of the Democratic National Convention last year and was even floated as a potential Democratic National Committee chair candidate before she decided to forgo a run.
Schumer has faced significant backlash from his party after supporting a GOP-written continuing resolution that prevented the government from shutting down, which some Democrats have argued was a missed opportunity to resist President Trump's agenda.
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