The 74-year-old Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) continues to serve in leadership, despite his age and the party being hungry for more young blood and diverse members to serve in leadership roles. These are Democrats we're talking about here, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) seen as not only a potential leader--depending on which poll you look to--but also a primary challenger for Schumer in 2028, or perhaps even Democratic candidate for president that year if she decides to go that route instead. Schumer's numbers, for however much he and his fellow Democrats complain about President Donald Trump, whose numbers are at least better--are absolutely atrocious. We will soon be seeing that even more clearly.
On Tuesday, in what is now a pinned post, Decision Desk HQ announced that they had added a "favorability polling average" for Schumer. As for how he's doing, it's not great, which we already knew. That average has him at just a 28.2 percent approval rating, while 42.5 percent disapprove.
Today, we've launched a new candidate favorability polling average for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) May 27, 2025
Schumer's favorability currently rests 14.3 points underwater.
You can follow all polling movement, including Presidential approval crosstabs at https://t.co/0XT2qgEIT1 pic.twitter.com/NhOz1q8aHw
Considering that CNN's poll from last month has Schumer with just a 17 percent favorable rating, and doesn't look to be an outlier, these numbers appearing in the Decision Desk HQ aggregare are not surprising. CNN has spent considerable time on Schumer, actually, considering that Harry Enten raised concerns, including how Schumer is even doing among his fellow Democrats and fellow New Yorkers. That could really come into play for the 2028 elections, especially as AOC may launch a primary challenge.
We've covered the results of polls from recent months conducted by Data for Progress and Cygnal that look to this hypothetical primary and/or at least Schumer's favorable ratings that spoke to how he may find himself in a precarious situation. It's also worth mentioning that the announced retirements from other top, elderly Democrats, like Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) have also led to calls for Schumer to do the same.
Schumer isn't up again in 2026 like Durbin was, but it's still fair game to call him out for not taking the hint. As he shared last month, even in light of all these bad polls, Schumer not only believes that Democrats will take back control of the Senate for the 2026 midterms, but that he'll be the majority leader come 2027. It was a prediction that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) rightfully found to be "DELUSIONAL."
Recommended
DELUSIONAL: Democrat Chuck Schumer thinks voters will reward his party of MS-13 sympathizers with a majority in the U.S. Senate.
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) April 24, 2025
Q: "Do you think you'll be majority leader in 2027?"
Schumer: "In 2027, I believe I will." pic.twitter.com/QZtO6sz8UZ
If Schumer does run again in 2028, AOC is in a good place to challenge him. Not only did she enjoy a wide lead of 19 points in the Data for Progress poll conducted back at the very end of March, but there's a new poll out. Not only does it show the congresswoman beating Schumer by wide margins, but it spells catastrophic news for Schumer's standings with a key group.
Honan Strategy Group for the Jewish Voters Action Network conducted a poll May 15-18 with 1,136 likely Democratic voters in New York and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.89 percentage points, as The New York Post covered.
Among New York City Democrats, AOC leads by 54-33 percent, with 12 percent undecided. She even leads Schumer by 45-38 percent among Jewish NYC Democrats, with 17 percent undecided.
That spells out all kinds of examples of Democrats in disarray, given how AOC is a founding member of the Squad, which has even been nicknamed the Hamas Caucus, and has herself gone after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and gotten into it with fellow Democrats over blaming Jews for election losses last year that the party faced. Schumer himself is also Jewish, though he's come under fire for not standing up enough to antisemitism since October 7, 2023, especially after he stood on the Senate floor to call for Israel to hold new elections to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More recently, he even whipped all but one Democratic--Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania--to vote against sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) for arrest warrants against top Israelis, such as Netanyahu. Trump ultimately did that via executive order in February.
His handling of antisemitism on college campuses, including in his home state of New York, have been horrific. He has appeared to turn a blind eye to the rampant issues going on at once fine Ivy League institutes like Columbia University. Last Congress, when he was the majority leader, he sat on supporting a bill codifying the definition of antisemitism even after it passed the House with bipartisan support. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) spoke to Townhall last year about Schumer not doing enough.
It seems that Schumer is dealing with the polls by not dealing with them. As Trump reached the first 100 days of his second Trump, ranting and raving against Trump's numbers, which have since improved and were at least always better than Democrats, he was confronted by CNN's Manu Raju about that 17 percent, and also later Kaitlan Collins during his media hit. He laughably claimed that "polls come and go," and they're certainly doing that when it comes to Trump's numbers.
Same Presser:
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) April 30, 2025
Schumer: "Trump has the lowest 100 day approval rating since they started polling."
2 Minutes later.
Manu Raju: "There's a poll out today that has your approval rating lower than any other Congressional leader at 17 percent."
Schumer: "Polls come and go." pic.twitter.com/aMNc0Su667
With such a poll tracker, however, Schumer will have a hard time ignoring his own unpopularity, and any other continued attempts to do so will likely continue to fall even more flat.
Beyond bad poll numbers, with both his popularity numbers and a hypothetical 2028 primary, Schumer is a downright cringeworthy character, not merely with the boomer behavior, though that's certainly been the case. Last June, for Father's Day, Schumer posted a since-deleted picture of himself over X as he was grilling hamburgers in a very unsanitary way, with cheese on a raw, uncooked patty.
The NRSC, which posted about Schumer's prediction last month that he'll actually be the majority leader come the next Congress, mocked Schumer once more on Wednesday in celebration of Happy National Hamburger Day, as they even tagged him in their post.
Happy National Hamburger Day, @chuckschumer.
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) May 28, 2025
We grill like we vote: RIGHT. pic.twitter.com/C15pvM3kOU
Schumer is also part of the failing Democratic Party with failed narratives, and it shows. His social media feed is full of calling out Trump and Republicans, though he's often been ratioed, hit with added context from Community Notes, and/or been the focus of articles at Townhall and our sister site of Twitchy.
We've seen this on tariffs, negotiations with China for trade deals, and Schumer's response when a Mexican ship crashing into the Brooklyn Bridge. Keep in mind, these are just a few recent examples. And again, it doesn't look to be getting any better for Schumer. We can't wait to see what Decision Desk HQ has as we get closer to the 2026 midterms and a 2028 primary election.
