The News
By Corbin Trent’s estimate, he’s spending 15 hours a day on a cause that has animated the left ever since Democrats won huge majorities in the House and Senate: urging them to dump their leaders.
Trent, a former spokesman for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has some well-known allies in his long-shot campaign to oust Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They include actor Mark Ruffalo, former Ocasio-Cortez chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, and countless progressive influencers.
But they don’t include Ocasio-Cortez, who underscored on Tuesday that she’s backing Jeffries. Even Trent acknowledged that what legions of online progressives are asking for — the rejection of leaders who just presided over Democratic landslides — is unlikely to happen.
“I reckon it’s about a 10% chance on Schumer and a 3% chance on Jeffries,” Trent told Semafor. “What matters, and matters a lot, is making it loud and clear that voters asked for something else. That it is being denied to them. If you’ve ever got a chance to beat these folks, you need votes.”
Theoretically, the votes to shake up leadership are at least within reach. Informal whip counts and hallway interviews confirm that dozens of newly elected Democrats are interested in challengers to the two New Yorkers who occasionally break from the left.
