Bernie Sanders has put a demand in writing to the three people who run the Democratic Party's institutions: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. The ask is that the party bar super-PAC money from its own primaries. "I urge you to take action and make clear that the Democratic Party will no longer maintain this corrupt system," Sanders wrote [1].
The letter argues from numbers, so here are the numbers as Sanders cites them. Corporate-backed super PACs have spent more than $517 million in the 2026 midterm cycle to date, by the letter's accounting [1]. The exhibit is Michigan's Senate primary, where Haley Stevens drew over $50 million in donations from outside organizations, including $30 million from the pro-Israel group AIPAC, by the letter's count [1]. Stevens lost anyway. The primary went to Abdul El-Sayed, a result our desk covered when the race was called on Aug. 5. Those figures are Sanders' figures, presented here as he presents them, and they have not been independently audited by this desk.
Sanders adds a coda to the Michigan story that carries most of the letter's argumentative weight. He points to reports that AIPAC now plans to spend "tens of millions" supporting Republican Mike Rogers, El-Sayed's opponent in the general election [1]. In other words, the letter argues, the same outside money that spent $30 million trying to pick the Democratic nominee will now spend against the Democratic nominee it failed to pick. "While there are ideological differences of opinion within the big tent of the party, I would hope that we can all agree that Republican special interests should not play a role in determining the outcome of Democratic primaries," Sanders wrote [1].
The letter carries three asks, and they are not equally hard. Sanders backs a constitutional amendment to repeal Citizens United, which requires two-thirds of both chambers and three-quarters of the states. He backs public funding of elections, which requires an act of Congress. The third ask requires neither: a party rule prohibiting super PACs from participating in Democratic primaries is within the gift of the party itself [1]. That is the structural fact that explains the address line. Schumer, Jeffries, and Martin cannot repeal Citizens United, but the primary ban is theirs to grant.
As of the CBS report, none of the three had responded [1]. On a demand the recipients could meet without a single Republican vote, the response is the only number left to watch.
