Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, is pressing top Democrats to require candidates to reject super PAC support in primaries or face punishment from the national party and its affiliates.
Mr. Sanders said party leaders, starting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chairman, must tell candidates to forswear super PAC support or lose access to party resources.
“If the Democrats are going to be honest and consistent in terms of their concerns about money and politics, they’ve got to clean up, in my view, their own house immediately,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview on Saturday. “That means getting super PACs out of Democratic primaries, congressional as well as presidential.”
Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums in elections but are banned from direct coordination with campaigns, have played an influential role in many high-stakes contests. Such groups flooded last month’s Democratic primary in Illinois with more than $50 million, making the candidates seem almost ancillary to their own races.
Mr. Sanders’s demand comes as he has endorsed candidates in Senate primaries against Schumer-backed contenders in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota. The most heated rivalry is in Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills, whom Mr. Schumer recruited, trails far behind Graham Platner, a first-time candidate for whom Mr. Sanders has held rallies.
Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC tied to Mr. Schumer, is not at the moment spending money on Senate primaries. The group’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mr. Schumer, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Mr. Sanders, who has twice placed second for the Democratic presidential nomination, remains one of the most popular and influential figures in the party. His rallies attract large and enthusiastic crowds, and his endorsement is coveted by fellow progressives. A longtime independent, he tends to refer to Democrats as “they” and not “we.” He has made similar requests of party leaders in recent years.
Mr. Martin said he “couldn’t agree more” with Mr. Sanders and the senators who signed his letter but said it would require commitments from across the party to ban super PACs and dark money from primaries. Under Mr. Martin, the D.N.C. has passed resolutions aimed at eliminating dark money from the midterm primaries and from the 2028 presidential primary.
“Real, permanent, pervasive change will require all of our partners — across the legislative branch and the entire Democratic ecosystem — to join together in this work,” he said.
The pressure from Mr. Sanders highlights the tension in Democratic politics over how campaigns are funded. In recent years, Democrats have come to embrace dark-money organizations that are not required to disclose their donors. Mr. Sanders is not taking issue with Democrats’ reliance on super PACs in general elections.
Five Democratic senators signed Mr. Sanders’s letter to Mr. Schumer and Mr. Martin: Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Peter Welch of Vermont. Ms. Warren swore off super PACs when she ran for president in 2020 but eventually accepted help from one.
Each of the signatories to the letter except for Mr. Welch is part of a group of Senate Democrats who call themselves the “Fight Club,” which is working to defeat Mr. Schumer’s picks in contested Senate primaries this year.
A torrent of spending from super PACs funded by artificial intelligence, the cryptocurrency industry, sports gambling interests and AIPAC are expected to spend record sums on the midterm elections.
In last month’s primary contests in Illinois, super PACs spent more than $32 million on four competitive House contests and another $22 million on the Senate primary.
One recent forecast from Kinetiq Political Insights, an ad tracking firm, predicted $10 billion will be spent on advertising in the midterms — with $1 billion in Michigan alone. The vast majority of that sum is likely to come from super PACs and dark money groups.
While campaign finance laws ban super PACs from coordinating with candidates, they have found workarounds, including campaigns posting pleas on their websites for help from outside groups.
After his 2016 campaign, Mr. Sanders inspired Our Revolution, a dark money group that does not regularly reveal its donors. Mr. Sanders has not called on Our Revolution to do so, as it endorses candidates in Democratic primaries.
Mr. Sanders said that state parties have “strong leverage” to discourage candidates from blessing super PAC support, such as by prohibiting them from using state party lists or by withholding volunteer support. But he conceded: “We’ve got to work out the details.”
Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.
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