Democratic Senate candidate in Kansas won’t support Schumer for leader

Adam Hamilton, the Democratic candidate running for Senate in Kansas, says he will not support Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) serving another term as Democratic leader if the megachurch pastor defeats Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall (R) in November.

“I’m not supporting Schumer for leader,” Hamilton told CNN’s Kasie Hunt in an interview. “I’m saying let’s look to see who might we have that would be a leader to unite us and bring us together.”

Hamilton said there is widespread voter dissatisfaction with gridlock and partisanship in Washington and suggested that Schumer, who has been Democratic leader since 2017, is part of the problem.

“I mean no disrespect for Chuck Schumer but we need new leadership. We need new younger leadership, young blood. I don’t mean just age but people who are bringing fresh ideas and fresh leadership. In Kansas, Chuck Schumer’s a liability for Democrats,” he said.

“We’ve got to have leaders that can unite us, bring us together – not just Democrats – but bring together Democrats and Republicans to solve real problems. I think people are frustrated with the gridlock and the sense that people are not working together to solve problems,” he said.

Hamilton pointed to Democrats blocking the farm bill in the Senate Agriculture Committee last month even though Republicans offered a major concession in proposing to delay the implementation of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by a year.

“As an independent minded Democrat, I’m going to work with Republicans on that and we’re going to get this through,” he said. “I think people are frustrated, we have to do better.”

Hamilton is one of several Senate Democratic candidates who say they won’t support Schumer serving another term or have declined to endorse his continued leadership of the Senate Democratic caucus.

Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic candidate in Minnesota, and Juliana Stratton in Illinois, and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate in Michigan, have withheld their support from Schumer serving another two years as leader.

A new The Hill/Emerson College Polling survey showed Hamilton leading Marshall, 45 to 43 percent.

Kansas last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1932.