Progressive Groups Launch Billboard Campaign Calling for Schumer to Resign as Senate Minority Leader

A coalition of progressive organizations launched a campaign on Tuesday in Washington to pressure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer into resigning. RootsAction, World BEYOND War, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans For Peace, and Peace Action are circling a mobile electric billboard around the Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday.

” “Senator Schumer has consistently shown that he is out of step with the wants and needs of the Democratic base,” RootsAction political director Sam Rosenthal said in a statement.

” “The party simply cannot move forward with him at the head of the Senate caucus and he needs to step away from leadership for the benefit of the party’s future,” Rosenthal added. Rosenthal has helped lead other anti-Schumer campaigns. In addition to the billboard campaign, the coalition said it is organizing large numbers of constituent emails to Democratic senators complaining about Schumer’s leadership on issues ranging from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Iran war.

“He has made clear on Iran, ICE, and other issues that he prefers to keep catastrophes going in order to pose as an ‘opponent’ of them,” the emails read. “The problem with this strategy is that we, your constituents, see through it, and it disgusts us.

As your constituent, I strongly urge you to have the political courage to call for Schumer to step aside as minority leader,” the emails continued.

Schumer retains core backing from Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO). Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has begun to put some distance between himself and Schumer. Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic nominee looking to unseat Sen.

Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Graham Platner, who is likely to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have expressed support for ousting the Senate minority leader. Democratic strategist Brad Bannon previously told the Washington Examiner that some Democrats in the Senate are already gunning for Schumer.

“If a sizable number of anti-establishment candidates end up being added to the roster of Democratic senators, there will be a fight over the party leadership,” Bannon said.