Chuck Schumer Appears to Be Scared of a Primary Challenge From the Left (Good!)
Politics

For more than a year now, rumors have swirled that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is gearing up to primary Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. She hasn’t exactly contested these rumors—part of a strategy, it seems, to keep Schumer worried that he’ll lose his seat to a young leftist candidate, if not Ocasio-Cortez herself.
So far, it appears to be working: According to a Sunday report from the New York Times, Schumer has gone to some trouble to meet with grassroots organizers and would-be Ocasio-Cortez voters in recent months, in an apparent attempt to shield himself from the possibility of a primary challenge. In January, Schumer met with housing rights activists in New York, and reassured them he was talking to members of Congress like Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Ilhan Omar, a move that not-so-subtly aligns him with the progressive wing of the party.
The policies he’s supported as of late are also noticeably to the left of where Schumer was a few years ago. In December, when then-president-elect Biden was asked about his position on student debt cancellation, Schumer encouraged him to forgive up to $50,000 of debt rather than the $10,000 he said he originally supported. He also pushed Biden enact this policy as part of an executive order—something Biden has expressed uncertainty about—as opposed to leaving it to Congress.