Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was briefly hospitalized on Wednesday for dehydration, a spokesman for his office said.
The leader of the Senate Democratic caucus was back on the Hill later in the day. He is expecting a vote in the coming days on the GOP’s budget reconciliation bill, which Schumer’s caucus is likely to oppose on a party-line vote.
Axios first reported the senator’s condition. The Independent has reached out for further comment.
The District of Columbia is in the middle of a heat wave exacerbated by the historically muggy conditions that accompany the summer season in the nation’s capital and the surrounding region. Wednesday’s temperatures around the capital felt as high as 105 degrees Fahrenheit due to humidity, according to one weather monitor.
A spokesperson told The Hill that Schumer began feeling symptoms of dehydration in the Senate’s gym facilities.
“Leader Schumer was at the Senate gym this morning and got lightheaded,” the spokesperson told the news outlet. “Out of an abundance of caution, he went to the hospital to be treated for dehydration and is now back at work in the Capitol.”
“He wants to remind everyone to drink some water and stay out of the heat,” they added.
The Senate vote on the GOP’s reconciliation package is being watched intently as Schumer’s counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, struggles to get Republicans behind the package. That’s despite stronger cuts to Medicaid than those present in the House version of the legislation, and the changes made by the Senate’s parliamentarian this week to make the bill passable via the reconciliation process — which requires just 51 votes, rather than 60.
Schumer’s home state of New York was the site of a major political battle on Tuesday evening as state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, in a Democratic primary for the mayoral race. Eric Adams, the city’s current Democratic mayor, is running as an independent in November after facing calls for his resignation over a corruption scandal.
In a statement late Wednesday morning, Schumer congratulated Mamdani. He, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and a number of other elected officials in the state, did not make endorsements in the contest where Mamdani, a 33-year-old progressive, pulled off a stunning upset victory on Tuesday.
“I have known @ZohranKMamdani since we worked together to provide debt relief for thousands of beleaguered taxi drivers & fought to stop a fracked gas plant in Astoria. He ran an impressive campaign that connected with New Yorkers about affordability, fairness, & opportunity,” wrote the senator on Wednesday.
Schumer, 74, is widely speculated to be a potential target for a primary challenge in the next election cycle. Calls for as much were expressed openly by Mamdani supporters such as the left-leaning journalist Ken Klippenstein on Twitter on Tuesday evening as results poured in.
