8 Senators Demand Super PAC, Dark Money Ban in Democratic Primaries
"We cannot allow billionaires and powerful corporate interests to continue undermining democracy by injecting unlimited amounts of money into the political process."
Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and seven of his Democratic colleagues on Tuesday urged party leaders to ban super PAC and other forms of dark money from party primaries to curb outside corporate giving and the shadowy influence of the megarich.
"We cannot allow billionaires and powerful corporate interests to continue undermining democracy by injecting unlimited amounts of money into the political process," states the letter to Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "As you know, the Supreme Court's 2010 decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has been a disaster for our country."
Citizens United allowed corporations and outside organizations to spend unlimited amounts of money on U.S. politics, often by giving through unaccountable political action committees (super PACs), which can take donations from groups that don't have to disclose the source of their funding. Since the high court's landmark decision, "dark money groups have spent at least $4.3 billion on federal elections" alone, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Schumer has said that "overturning Citizens United is probably more important than any other single thing we could do to preserve this great and grand democracy," the senators' letter notes. Martin has promised a resolution on dark money and that he "will be pushing hard for our party to come up with solutions on this so that we actually have our candidates and campaigns realize that we have to live our values."
"We support legislation to comprehensively reform campaign finance to remove the corrosive influence of money in our elections, including by overturning the Citizens United decision," the senators wrote. "But we don't have to wait until then. There is action we can take now to get billionaire super PACs and dark money out of Democratic primaries. In recent election cycles, right-wing billionaires have spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding super PACs to dominate in our primaries."
"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," they pointed out. "The result: they have defeated a number of excellent members in the House and Senate. That is unacceptable."
Republican President Donald Trump was elected to a second term last year with significant support from the richest person on Earth, Elon Musk—who then spearheaded the administration's sweeping assault on the federal bureaucracy via their so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
"The American people are disgusted with a corrupt political system that allows Elon Musk to spend $270 million to elect Donald Trump. They want change. We can make change," argued Sanders (Vt.) and Democratic Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), and Chris Van Hollen (Md.).
"If our opposition to Citizens United is going to be taken seriously, we must begin by cleaning our own house. Super PAC money and dark money must be banned from Democratic primaries," the coalition asserted, pointing to a recent example of state action as proof that the policy "is not some pie in the sky dream."
As the letter details, "The Arizona Democratic Party recently took steps to bar super PAC money from primaries by adopting a resolution committing to 'ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that candidates in Democratic primaries are not benefited by, dependent on, or elected due to outside or independent electioneering spending' and launching a process to develop enforcement procedures to implement this commitment."
After those moves, Sanders—who caucuses with Democrats and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020—had congratulated the Arizona party "for getting the ball rolling on this enormously important issue," declaring: "Billionaires must not be allowed to buy Democratic primary elections. Other states should follow suit."
Similarly, the new letter congratulates the state party and says that "the national Democratic Party must follow."
Since last November's election, when Democrats lost not only the White House but also both chambers of Congress—setting up Trump and Republican lawmakers to push their "Big Beautiful Bill" that would give tax cuts to the rich while gutting key healthcare and anti-hunger programs—Sanders has challenged Democratic Party leaders to actually prioritize working people and launched a Fighting Oligarchy Tour that's visited several states.
Meanwhile, Schumer has faced pressure to step down from leadership after leading nine other members of the Democratic caucus in helping Republicans advance a GOP stopgap funding bill to a final vote in March. That decision provoked fresh calls for progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—a frequent speaker on Sanders' tour—to launch a primary challenge against him for 2028.
