Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s popularity stands at a record low for Democratic leaders in the upper chamber, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Tuesday.
The New York lawmaker had a minus-four popularity rating among Democrats in September, Mr. Enten said on “CNN News Central,” citing Pew Research Center and FiveThirtyEight data.
About half of Americans surveyed held unfavorable views of Mr. Schumer, according to Pew Research.
In his analysis, Mr. Enten said Mr. Schumer is the least popular Democratic Senate leader in polling history going back to 1985.
“He’s underwater with Democrats, his own party,” Mr. Enten said.
The analyst said it’s because “Democrats want a fighter.”
When asked by anchor Sara Sidner about a potential challenge to his Senate seat, Mr. Enten said Mr. Schumer is seen more favorably by New York Democrats, but not as much as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“If she decides to challenge Chuck Schumer come 2028, she’s got a real leg up on the competition,” he said. “I dare say, at this point, she would be the favorite to beat him, which would be something that would just blow my mind.”
The Pew Research survey was conducted before the government shutdown, which became the longest in U.S. history and is expected to end this week.
Polling shows that Democrats overwhelmingly — almost 70% — think Democrats in Congress are doing too little to oppose President Trump, Mr. Enten said.
Americans have more negative than positive views of the president, Vice President J.D. Vance and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, according to the survey. However, Democrats now express more disapproval of their party’s congressional leadership than at any time in several decades.
Almost 40% of Democrats said they have a negative view of Mr. Schumer, according to the September survey.
As eight Senate Democrats made a deal to end the government shutdown, some Democrats are calling for Mr. Schumer’s ouster.
Although he publicly opposed the shutdown, he held the Democratic caucus strong for a month. Ultimately, rank-and-file Democrats moved to end the shutdown and secure a vote on an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of December.
Senate Democrats filibustered a House-passed measure to fund the government, demanding that Republicans negotiate a subsidy extension. Republicans declined to until the government reopens.
In March, Mr. Schumer faced backlash from Democrats after he voted for a Republican-backed spending bill to avert a government shutdown
