A group of influential liberal senators is directly challenging Senator Chuck Schumer’s approach to the midterm elections and President Trump, in another sign of growing frustration among Democrats toward the minority leader.
The coalition of at least half a dozen senators, who call themselves the “Fight Club,” is unhappy with how Mr. Schumer and his fellow senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, have chosen, recruited and, they argue, favored candidates aligned with the establishment.
The mutinous mood of the senators — who include Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — reflects the widespread doubts among the Democratic base that party leaders in Congress have a strong vision and a winning strategy for returning to power.
The effort also amounts to an extraordinary pre-emptive challenge to Mr. Schumer at the earliest stages of the 2026 midterm races. He has faced widespread Democratic criticism over his handling of battles against the White House this year and his refusal to endorse Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. Mr. Mamdani ultimately won.
The goals and existence of the group, which have not been previously reported, were described by nine people with direct knowledge of its deliberations. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.
With views of the Democratic brand at record lows, the group argues that the party must embrace candidates willing to challenge entrenched corporate interests, fiercely oppose the Trump administration and defy their own party’s orthodoxy. Other senators who have participated in the group’s actions have included Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.
They are focused on contested primaries for open seats in Minnesota, Michigan and Maine.
The party’s campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has not made any formal endorsements in contested primaries. However, the senators are convinced that it is quietly signaling support for and pushing donors toward specific Senate candidates: Representative Angie Craig in Minnesota, Representative Haley Stevens in Michigan and Gov. Janet Mills in Maine.
The dispute exploded in a private meeting with Mr. Schumer and Ms. Gillibrand last month, when the skeptical senators raised concerns about the campaign arm’s electoral strategy. They were livid after the New York senators denied showing any preference in the three states, according to three people familiar with the conversation.
The “Fight Club” senators generally lean left of their Democratic peers in Congress, but their differences are less over ideology and more about attitude and political combativeness. They worry that leadership is using a dated playbook and risks dampening the party’s energy and desire for new kinds of candidates.
Alex Nguyen, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer, disputed that notion. “Our North Star is winning the Senate majority in 2026 and any decision is made to achieve that goal,” he said in a statement.
While individual senators often endorse primary candidates, it is highly unusual for a group of sitting senators to collectively wade into contested races and back candidates who are not the preferred choice of the official party apparatus.
“I can think of no historical example that would compare to this level of internal caucus fear and dissension,” said Josh Orton, a former Senate aide and a Democratic strategist. He now leads a group pushing the party’s lawmakers to oppose what he sees as Mr. Trump’s assault on the legal system. “To be essentially a guerrilla group of senators who are raising concerns not just about one bill or one decision, but questions of leadership’s entire disposition toward politics and the Trump administration, feels unique.”
In recent months, Democrats have increasingly broken ranks to criticize Mr. Schumer, with several House members making symbolic calls for his ouster as leader. The possibility of a primary challenge in 2028 is real: A recent Siena Poll of New York State voters found his approval rating at its lowest in decades, with fewer than a third expressing a favorable view toward him.
Much of the senators’ effort remains in the exploratory stage. At in-person meetings and on an active text thread, they are discussing the possibility of joint fund-raising efforts, lending their considerable donor lists on behalf of candidates, offering endorsements and making campaign appearances.
Their first public move was a joint video offering a group endorsement of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, who is facing off against Ms. Craig in the state’s Democratic primary race for Senate.
“All the way, she’s taken on powerful corporate interests,” Mr. Van Hollen says in the video.
Mr. Markey echoes, “Powerful corporate interests in every battle.”
The “Fight Club” group does not plan to target incumbents, or the two Democratic candidates widely seen as Mr. Schumer’s strongest recruits, former Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio and former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, according to multiple people familiar with their plans. Both are competing in top-tier races and face no serious primary opposition. The senators are also closely watching primary races in Texas and Iowa where the committee has played less of a role.
Representatives for Mr. Schumer and Ms. Gillibrand said they were focused on finding the candidates with the best chance of winning tough races and reclaiming control of the Senate.
Some Democratic strategists noted that all of the critical senators come from reliably blue states, where Democrats rarely face tough general-election battles, and raised questions about their experience winning difficult races. They pointed to the committee’s record of success over the last several election cycles, including in 2024, when Democrats won Senate races in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan — all states Mr. Trump won.
Several of the “Fight Club” members have benefited from the campaign committee’s support during their own primaries in the past: Mr. Markey, Ms. Warren and Mr. Murphy. And when Mr. Van Hollen served as the chair of the committee during the first Trump administration, he endorsed Senate candidates in Arizona and Nevada.
“The D.S.C.C. is focused on winning Senate seats and flipping the majority in 2026, and our strategy is guided by the best way to do that,” Maeve Coyle, a spokeswoman for the party’s Senate campaign arm, said in a statement.
But members of the group believe the best way for Democrats to win races is for the committee to stay out of primaries and to let voters decide without interference.
In Maine, Mr. Schumer recruited Ms. Mills into the race even after Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and veteran, built a strong progressive following and raised millions of dollars. (Mr. Platner has since faced controversies over a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol and offensive old Reddit posts.)
Members believe that raising their concerns collectively will give them more power to stop or limit such involvement. But even among the group, there are divisions over the best path forward.
In Michigan, where three prominent candidates are vying for the party’s Senate nomination, Mr. Sanders endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, saying he would “fight for the working class.” Mr. Heinrich, by contrast, endorsed Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from the Detroit suburbs, praising her “forward-looking message.”
Tensions over the committee’s electoral strategy have been building for months.
Concerns began percolating among the senators as they watched Mr. Schumer repeatedly decline to endorse Mr. Mamdani. In September, Mr. Van Hollen publicly accused Democratic leaders of playing “spineless politics” by staying on the sidelines of the race.
His remark led to a contentious private meeting with Mr. Schumer, according to two people familiar with the conversation.
A month later, Ms. Mills, the two-term Democratic governor of Maine, jumped into the state’s Senate race, prompting a backlash from some senators. Mr. Sanders called the decision to recruit Mills “disappointing,” posting on social media that the party should “not waste millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary.”
The decision motivated the group of senators to take a more aggressive approach to Mr. Schumer’s electoral strategy.
When some in the group gathered in Mr. Sanders’s office in October to film a video discussing the government shutdown, they discussed their frustrations with the committee. A few days later, they met in Mr. Van Hollen’s office for the first official “Fight Club” meeting.
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
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