Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he expects Republican President Donald Trump to try to interfere with the midterm elections and says 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 20-minute Associated Press telephone interview with the New York Democrat, who argued that former Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola’s entry into the Senate race gives her party a path to the majority.
Schumer said 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 has called such statements by Democrats “fear mongering” to score political points.
This is an edited transcript of the interview.
Trump’s interference is expected
Q: Some predict that Trump will try to prevent open and fair midterm elections and would be expected to challenge the results. Do you share these concerns?
A: We share them, and we already have teams of both senators and lawyers looking at all the ways Trump could try to screw things up, and we’re fighting that. We already have a team to make sure they count the votes correctly. And remember, though, a lot of the electoral machinery is made by the states. And even in red states, there is resistance to Trump’s intervention.
Trump will do whatever it takes and has no honor, no credibility, and no respect for the law. But we are ready for it and we believe we will succeed.
The Influence of ICE Raids on Elections
Q: What impact do you think immigration and customs enforcement raids have on the interim period since the beginning?
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, like I said, cost is number one. But there are costs, corruption and chaos. People don’t like it. And Trump, at the same time he says he wants to protect the protesters in Iran, he’s 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 the economic factors that are unsatisfying to a lot of voters are sustainable in this election year?
A: Absolutely. The main thing that bothers American families is that they can’t pay all the bills.
Costs are the number one issue. Cost of living, affordability, you name it. But it’s the number one problem, and now they realize that Trump is screwing them over with all of this.
On health, with not extending the ACA tax credits, on energy, by getting rid of clean, wind and solar energy, with increasing electricity bills with tariffs, which makes the price of everything go up. So people are now realizing that Trump is hurting them.
We will focus on five aspects of reducing people’s costs. These are health care, housing, tariffs – you know, commodity costs – food prices, because of food monopolies, and child care.
Trump and the Republicans are in a bubble and they don’t understand it. They ignore it and that’s why things keep getting better and better for us.
Congressional mid-term environment
Q: If we look at 25 to 30 House seats changing hands, is there a direct correlation to what may 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 that we’ve talked about, and because the House and the Senate have been very much in sync on these issues and resonating with the American people that we’re on their side, I think the gap between the likelihood of winning the House and the likelihood of winning the Senate has narrowed a lot.
Q: Yet right now, at the start of the midterms, do you agree that Democrats have a narrow path back to the Senate majority?
A: I say it’s a much wider path than the skeptics think and a much wider path than it was three months ago and certainly a year ago. And it just keeps getting better and better and we think we have a very good chance of winning back the Senate.
Younger, non-white Trump voters
Q: Younger and non-white voters swung toward 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 election. 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. I won the election in Georgia. We won elections all over the country. And that’s because voters, young and old, poor and middle class, don’t think Trump was serving them well. So there’s been a whole shift about Trump.
And, in large part, we’ve helped make that happen by focusing on costs.
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.