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MANCHESTER, N.H. – Amid a rising tide of calls from House Democrats and others in the party to remove Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from his longtime post as Senate Democratic leader, a top Democratic senator says it’s time for “new leadership” in the party.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, speaking one-on-one with Fox News Digital during a stop in New Hampshire, said it’s also a moment for a younger generation of Democratic leaders to “step up the stage.”
Booker was interviewed on Friday, four days after seven Senate Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the party, bucked Senate Democratic leaders and voted with the majority Republicans to end the longest federal government shutdown in history.
Plenty of progressives and center-left Democrats have pilloried the deal to end the shutdown, which didn’t include the Democrats’ top priority: an agreement to extend expiring subsidies that make health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, known as the ACA or Obamacare, more affordable to millions of Americans.
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And even though he opposed the agreement, Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, has faced calls from an increasing number of party members to step down due to his inability to keep Senate Democrats unified.
But to date, no Senate Democrat has joined those calls for Schumer to step down.
After the final congressional vote to end the shutdown, Booker wrote that “the Democratic Party needs change. It needs a new generation of leaders to stand up to Trump.”
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Asked if those comments were directed at Schumer, Booker said, “I’m pointing these comments at anybody who will listen to me.”
“Chuck Schumer’s generation, Nancy Pelosi’s generation, John Lewis’s generation. They have so much to be proud of. It is time, though, for new leadership. The other generations, X, millennials, Z, — it’s time for us to step up. The stage is waiting for us to lead, not just the party, but the nation right now.”
Booker was interviewed ahead of an event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. New Hampshire’s two senators — Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan — were among the Democrats who supported the deal with Republicans.
Shaheen, who previously supported a bill to extend the ACA subsidies, on Monday defended breaking with her party to support the deal.
“We’re making sure that the people of America can get the food benefits that they need, that air traffic controllers can get paid, that federal workers are able to come back, the ones who were let go, that they get paid, that contractors get paid, that aviation moves forward,” Shaheen said in a “Fox and Friends” interview.
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Asked about the Democratic senators who bucked the party, Booker, who played Division One football at Stanford University, called for party unity.
“I played football, and that play is behind me. Now I want everybody back in the huddle, tighten your chin straps, because we’ve got to fight forward and the end zone, for me, is very simple. It is lowering people’s healthcare costs, lowering people’s grocery costs, lowering people’s energy costs, and getting an America that works for everybody, not just the wealthiest of the wealthy,” Booker said.
And Booker, who broke a Senate record with a 25-hour speech earlier this year as he took aim at President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda, said: “I’m a big believer, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
But he also lamented the increased animosity between Democrats and Republicans, saying that “the partisanship, as you know, bothers me, because it’s turned to tribalism.”
As he unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, Booker spent plenty of time and made lots of friends in New Hampshire, which has held the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for over a century.
Booker, who is up for re-election next year in blue-leaning New Jersey, is seen by political pundits as a possible contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, which is expected to be a crowded and competitive race.
“Of course, I’m thinking about it. Haven’t ruled it out. But I’m up on the ballot in New Jersey in ’26 and that is my focus,” Booker said.
After his Fox News interview, Booker headlined the latest “Stand Up New Hampshire Town Hall.” The speaking series, organized by top New Hampshire Democratic elected officials and party leaders, is seen as an early cattle call for potential White House contenders.
And later in the day, he gave the keynote address at a major fundraising gala for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Booker called next year’s elections, when the Democrats will try to win back majorities in the House and Senate, “vitally important.”
“Don’t talk to me about ’28 until you show me where you stand and who you stand for in ’26. I stand for New Jersey. I stand for America and an America that works for everybody,” Booker emphasized.
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