Bernie Sanders, seven other senators urge Democrats to break with billionaire donors

At a moment when many Americans are troubled by the role that top Republican donor Elon Musk played in shaping Trump administration policies, Sen. Bernie Sanders and seven fellow senators are calling on the Democratic Party’s leaders to make a sharp break with their own billionaire donors by banning super PAC and “dark money” from Democratic primaries.

The Vermont independent and his colleagues are seizing on this moment of turmoil for the Democratic Party to demand that Democrats “begin cleaning our own house” by restricting the influence of wealthy donors and powerful corporate interests in Democratic contests. Sanders is attempting to shape the direction of the party with his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has drawn out tens of thousands of people to protest Musk and President Donald Trump’s policies.

“The American people are disgusted with a corrupt political system that allows Elon Musk to spend $270 million to elect Donald Trump,” the senators wrote in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “They want change. We can make change.”

Sanders and the seven other senators – Democrats Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Chris Murphy (Connecticut), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Peter Welch (Vermont), Tina Smith (Minnesota), Edward J. Markey (Massachusetts) and Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) – argue that many voters have lost faith in the political system because wealthy donors such as Musk have played an outsize role shaping the outcome of elections.

That has included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which brands itself as “America’s pro-Israel lobby” and has poured millions of dollars into defeating progressive candidates. Pro-Israel groups, including the super PAC known as United Democracy Project, spent more than $30 million in the House primaries in 2024, according to an analysis by AdImpact in July. Some of their top targets were progressive Democrats, including former congressman Jamaal Bowman (New York), Rep. Summer Lee (Pennsylvania), former congresswoman Cori Bush (Missouri) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Michigan).

In the letter, the senators acknowledge that their long-term goal of passing comprehensive campaign finance reform to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision – which ushered in the current era of dark money, a term that refers to anonymous outside spending in political campaigns – will be difficult at a time when the party is in the minority. But they argue that the Democratic Party must start taking steps now to limit the influence of wealthy donors.

“Right-wing billionaires have spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding super PACs to dominate in our primaries,” the senators wrote. “In addition to intervening in Democratic primaries, it is not uncommon for these same super PACS and dark money groups to fund general election campaigns where they work overtime to defeat Democrats. The result: they have defeated a number of excellent members in the House and Senate. That is unacceptable.”

Sanders remains popular at a time when the Democratic brand has hit historic lows, and he is recruiting both Democratic and independent candidates to run across the country, including in red states, as he tries to build a populist “working-class movement” to push back against Trump and his allies. Continuing his effort to fan an uprising against Trump and the GOP in red states, Sanders is taking his tour to Texas this week.

This spring, many Democrats were angry that their leaders were not doing more to fight against the government-slashing policies of Trump and Musk. Frustration with Schumer’s leadership came to a head in March when he and eight other Democratic senators voted to pass Republican spending legislation to avoid a government shutdown.

Schumer defended that decision as the best way to fight Trump’s plan to downsize the government, arguing that Trump and Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service would take advantage of a government shutdown to make even deeper cuts.

During the DNC chair race this year, most of the candidates expressed sympathy for the idea of banning super PAC spending in Democratic primaries – but also questioned how it would actually work. Martin said he supported the idea “in spirit, but that’s about all the DNC chair can do.”