Senate Republicans are not the only ones shaking up who will lead them when they retake the majority in January. Democrats are in for their own 2025 leadership reshuffle.
Senate Democrats will huddle privately on Dec. 3 to select their new leadership lineup. While Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) are not going anywhere, third-ranking Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is retiring.
Her exit from Congress after nearly three decades will have ripple effects, the most notable being younger generations, at least by Senate standards, starting to climb Democrats’ aging leadership rungs.
Fourth-ranked Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), 64, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), 55, are eyeing Stabenow’s role, known as the policy and communications chairperson. The position is tasked with formulating Democrats’ legislative policy goals, related floor action, and messaging.
By comparison, Schumer and Stabenow are 74, and Durbin is 80. The average age in the Senate is 64.
A promotion for Klobuchar or Booker would mean further shake-ups to replace their current posts. Klobuchar is chairwoman of the Democrats’ Steering Committee, which handles relationships between Senate Democrats and advocacy groups and organizations. Booker is one of two policy and communications vice chairpeople.
Both are former 2020 presidential candidates with broad name recognition in the party, and their matchup to replace Stabenow is expected to be competitive.
Booker is serving his second full term but was first elected to the Senate in 2013 in a special election to serve the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s term. Booker will be up for reelection in the 2026 cycle.
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Klobuchar was reelected this month to a fourth term.
Senate Democrats will convene behind closed doors at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 3, when the caucus’s returning senators and senators-elect for the 119th Congress will choose their candidates. The current leadership lineup was selected without fanfare in late 2022, when Schumer and his team were chosen unanimously.