Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he expects Republican President Donald Trump to try to interfere in the midterm elections, saying raids by immigration agents in major cities are creating a sense of chaos that voters will reject in November.
The comments were part of a wide-ranging 20-minute Associated Press phone interview with the New York Democrat, who argued that the entry of former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola into the Senate race gives his party a path to a majority.
Schumer said that economic concerns have begun to cement themselves in the minds of voters and that Democrats have plans to build their campaign around the costs, chaos and corruption they attribute to the Trump administration.
The White House called these Democratic statements “fear” to score political points.
This is an edited transcript of the interview.
We await Trump’s interference
Q: Some are predicting that Trump will try to prevent an open and fair midterm election and is expected to challenge the results. Do you share that concern?
A: We share them, and we already have teams of both senators and lawyers looking at every way Trump can try to speed things up, and we’re fighting it. We already have a team to make sure the votes are counted fairly. And, remember, anyway, most of the election mechanisms are done by the states. And even in red states, there is resistance to Trump interfering.
Trump will do whatever it takes, and he has no honor and no credibility and no respect for the law. But, we are ready for it, and we believe that we will succeed.
Influence of the ICE raids on the election
Q: What impact do you think the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are having on the early midterms?
A: People don’t like chaos. They see that cities and mayors that were perfectly calm and safe are now going through all this chaos. And, you know, as I said, cost is number one. But it’s the costs, the corruption and the chaos. People don’t like it. And Trump, at the same time he is saying he wants to protect the protesters in Iran, is going after the protesters and other innocent civilians in Minneapolis. It doesn’t make sense to people.
Trump and the economy
Q: Do you think that economic factors that do not satisfy many of the voting public are permanent in this election year?
A: Absolutely. The number one thing that bothers American families is not being able to pay all the bills.
Costs are the number one issue. Cost of living, affordability, call it what you will. But it is the number one issue, and now they realize that Trump is screwing them over all of this.
On health care, by not extending the ACA tax credits, on energy, by getting rid of clean energy, wind and solar, raising electricity bills with tariffs, which is raising the price of everything. So, people now realize that Trump is hurting them.
We will focus on five issues in terms of reducing people’s costs. They are health care, housing, tariffs – you know, costs of goods – food prices, because of food monopolies, and child care.
Trump and the Republicans are in a bubble, and they don’t understand it. They are ignoring it, so things keep getting better and better for us.
Midterm congress environment
Q: If we are looking at, in the House, 25 to 30 seats changing hands, is there a direct correlation with what can happen in the Senate?
A: Look, at the beginning of the (last) year, people said, “Well, there’s a chance to win the House and no chance to win the Senate.” But because of the issues I talked about and because the House and the Senate were largely in sync on those issues and are resonating with the American people as we are on their side, I think that the difference between the probability of winning the House and the probability of winning the Senate has decreased a lot.
Q: Yet at this very moment, at the beginning of the midterm year, do you agree that the Democrats have a narrow path back to the Senate majority?
A: I would say that it is a much wider road than the skeptics think, and a much wider road than it was three months ago and certainly a year ago. And it keeps getting better and better, and we think we have a really good chance of winning back the Senate.
Younger, non-white Trump voters
Q: Younger, non-white voters went to Trump in the last election, as you know. What is your plan, and what will it take for the Democrats to win them over?
A: The cost issue is already having an effect. Look at the 2025 elections. Look at how (Democrat Abigail) Spanberger won by 15 points in Virginia and (Democrat Mikie) Sherrill won by 13 points (in the 2025 gubernatorial races). But it wasn’t just those two states. We won the elections in Georgia. We won the elections across the country. And this is because the voters, young and old, poor and middle class, do not think that Trump was serving them well. So, there was a complete change about Trump.
And for the most part, we’ve helped make that happen by focusing on costs.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.