RootsAction Announces Escalation of National Campaign Supporting Van Hollen for Senate Majority Leader

The activist organization RootsAction, with more than 1 million supporters online, released the following statement on Friday:

“By running for Senate majority leader, Chris Van Hollen is responding to widespread and heartfelt grassroots demands for truly new leadership of the Democratic Party. Van Hollen’s willingness to challenge the old order has given hope to Democrats across the country who are sick and tired of Senator Schumer’s longtime alliances with corporate special interests and failures to represent the wishes of the Democratic electorate. If Schumer truly wants meaningful party unity for the future, he should withdraw his candidacy for majority leader. His departure from party leadership is long overdue.

“In the days ahead, RootsAction will build on the campaign that we launched early this week, when activists responded to our mass emails by telling their Democratic senators to urge Van Hollen to run for the top Senate post. Now that he has done so, the imperative task is for Democrats nationwide to make sure that their voices are heard and heeded within the Capitol bubble. At this historic moment, that bubble must be burst so that grassroots Democrats finally have the bold leadership in the Senate that they deserve. Political business as usual is absolutely unacceptable, and that means Schumer is unacceptable as the Senate Democratic leader.”