Washington – The choice of leadership to happen to Senator Dick Durbin as a Democrat number 2 in the camera is a year and a half away, but Senator Brian Schatz is already accumulating backups.
Since Durbin, 80, from Illinois, announced last week that he would not seek re -election in 2026, Schatz, 52, of Hawaii, has been working aggressively behind the scene to consolidate the support for the position of the Senate’s Democratic whip, to have key allies who speak with colleagues with at least eight backs.
Others could still jump in the race to be the maximum voter of the Democrats. Amy Klobuchar, 64, from Minnesota, a former presidential candidate who is Senate Democrat No. 3, has not closed the door to a possible offer. And others have floated Patty Murray, 74, from Washington, who has played several leadership roles over the years and is now the main Democrat in the Senate Assignments Committee.
But Schatz hopes that starting an advantage will give you an advantage against other potential rivals, with the choice to replace Durbin that does not take place until after half of the 2026. He has received early endorsements of the sens. Cory Booker, Dn.J., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., And Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Who have been talking to other members about their support.
“At this time, we are doing the job and I continue conversations with the members,” said Schatz in an interview on Thursday. “I only have one vision that when you realize that you want to run, you just start.”
Other Democrats who support Shatz’s candidacy are John Fetterman, from Pennsylvania; Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, both from New Mexico; Raphael Warnock, from Georgia; and Mazie Hirono, who represents Hawaii along with Schatz.
“Support for Brian Schatz,” Lujan said in an interview on Thursday. “Brian has been working on this capacity as a deputy during the time I have been in the United States Senate. He shares information, he is honest with the members, and in my opinion he has also gained the confidence of colleagues. He is also a good person; he is an honest person. I think he is a strong member of the Senate.
“No one else has contacted me yet,” Lujan added. “That sounds to me as if I had broad support along the way, and I think that’s encouraging.”
In a statement, Warnock called Scatz an “effective leader.”
“I am sure that, as a whip, he will continue his work by unifying our caucus and moving our shared priorities,” Warnock said.
The paper of the whip is predominantly to take the pulse of the senators in the Caucus, making sure that the leadership knows how each plans to vote to avoid shameful mishaps of the floor in which the bills or nominations could fail unexpectedly with the razor margins.
The race is also critical because the winner could be elevated to the Democratic leader in just a few years. The current leader, Chuck Schumer, from New York, is 74 years old and has served in leadership during the last two decades. Schumer must decide whether it is postulated for re -election in 2028, since it faces the heat of the liberal base and younger Democrats require a generational change.
Leadership elections are held behind closed doors and in secret vote. To win a position, a senator needs to ensure the support of a simple majority of Senate Democrats.
Schatz would jump to several Democrats in the leadership hierarchy if he won; Now he is the Whip Chief in Durbin, as well as the deputy secretary of the Democratic Conference.
If he wins, he would also continue the tendency not to have a woman in either of the two main leadership positions of the Senate’s democratic caucus. Catherine Cortez Masto, from Nevada, who is in leadership as vice president of dissemination, has not yet supported anyone for number 2. But she said it is important that the Democrats have women in some of the main leadership positions.
“Listen, we will have time as a party to take a look at that,” Cortez Masto said Thursday. “But I think there should be women in leadership positions at all levels.”
Klobuchar, president of the Democratic Management and Policy Committee, is the highest -ranking woman in the leadership of the party’s Senate. He would not get involved in himself would run for whip’s work, saying he was too soon to talk about the race. But he hastened to point out that he is technically the following in the row.
“I am the number 3 in the Senate, and my work is to focus on what policies our country will move forward,” said Klobuchar.
“I am focused on one thing at this time, and that is to face Donald Trump and win a better economy for the people of this country,” he added. “And I really think that talking about something of a year and a half from now on and we have no idea who is going to win the Senate, who is going to get this, is a mistake.”
Schatz, a former governor of Hawaii, succeeded Senator Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, after his death in 2012 and made a national name by resorting to social networks to criticize Trump during his first mandate.
Schatz, in particular, was one of the 10 Democrats who voted for a Republican bill to keep the government financed to avoid a closure this year, a measure that caused strong criticism of the progressives.
His chief of cabinet, Dodin Dosta, was previously director of Durbin’s floor in his whip office and an official of the Biden administration.
Durbin, who has been in Congress since 1982 and the Senate’s democratic whip during the last two decades, said he has no plans to support anyone.
“I don’t have any support plan, because I won’t vote in that race,” he said.
When asked what characteristics he thinks he should have had the next whip, Durbin joked, “try to emulate Dick Durbin’s energy.”
In a speech on the floor on Monday, Schumer praised Durbin, his deputy political rival of life for the best leadership position and former Capitol Hill’s roommate.
“Senator Durbin has left an indelible brand in the Senate, in our Caucus, in Illinois and throughout America. He has been a justice champion and helped the Senate Democrats confirm a record number of federal judges in the last congress,” Schumer said. “He has been a tireless defender of families and people in need of Illinois. And he has been a close and reliable member of my leadership team.”
Asked by journalists on Thursday if he will support someone to replace Durbin, Schumer laughed and avoided the question: “Dick Durbin has been a great, great whip.”
