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<\/a><\/p>\nU.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaigns for Abdul El-Sayed at The People V. The Powerful rally at the Detroit Opera House in Detroit, Michigan, July 18, 2026. (Sarah Rice\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sanders in an open letter on Sunday called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to end a \u201ccorrupt system\u201d of super PAC funding. <\/p>\n
His main target was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent $32 million in an unsuccessful bid to tank the Democratic primary campaign of Abdul El-Sayed, a critic of Israel, for a Michigan Senate seat. El-Sayed last week defeated Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel moderate.<\/p>\n
Sanders cited reports that the pro-Israel lobby is now weighing another surge of funds to buoy Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee who will face El-Sayed in what is expected to be a tight general election in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absurd that they spend tens of millions of dollars to try to determine who the Democratic nominee is and, if they fail, then proceed to support the Republican candidate in the general election,\u201d said Sanders. He added that corporate PACs, including \u201ccrypto, AI and other online betting special interests,\u201d have spent a record $517 million this election cycle. <\/p>\n
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who frequently caucuses with Democrats, has long pushed for a constitutional amendment to undo the Supreme Court\u2019s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited money on elections. He said in his letter that Democratic leaders did \u201cnot have to wait\u201d for that, urging the party to immediately \u201cprohibit super PACs from participating in its primaries.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cMillions of Democrats are AIPAC members who are proud to help elect principled Democrats,\u201d AIPAC said Monday in its response to Sanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis letter isn\u2019t about democracy or campaign finance \u2014 that\u2019s why he doesn\u2019t name the billionaire super PACs that back him,\u201d the group said on X. \u201cSanders just wants to blacklist Americans who disagree with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders acknowledged in an interview on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d Sunday that Democrats would be severely disadvantaged if they forewent PAC spending in general elections, but said the party should \u201ctake charge of what takes place within their own primaries right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sanders is the most prominent Jewish progressive in American politics. He has supported an insurgent wave of democratic socialists and Israel critics who won elections over the past year, including El-Sayed, Adam Hamawy, the victor of the Democratic primary in New Jersey\u2019s 12th district, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. <\/p>\n
While Sanders built his movement on fighting economic inequality, he has increasingly condemned Israel\u2019s attacks on Gaza and Iran, and last year became the first U.S. senator to say that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. In April, a record number of 40 senators voted for his \u201cBlock the Bombs\u201d resolutions to ban certain weapons sales to Israel. <\/p>\n