cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/9859

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Angered by the Democratic leadership's fecklessness and lack of a bold vision for the future, a group of senators including Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has formed an alliance to push back on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the party's campaign arm ahead of next year's critical midterm elections.

The existence of the group, known as the "Fight Club," was first revealed Monday by the New York Times, which reported that the senators are pressing the Democratic Party to "embrace candidates willing to challenge entrenched corporate interests, fiercely oppose the Trump administration, and defy their own party’s orthodoxy."

Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut are also members of the alliance, and other senators—including Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon—have taken part in group actions, according to the Times.

"The coalition of at least half a dozen senators... 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 newspaper reported. "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."

Members of the "Fight Club" have endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan's bid for US Senate. In addition to Flanagan, Sanders has backed Abdul El-Sayed's US Senate run in Michigan and Graham Platner's campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine.

Platner's top opponent in the primary race, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, was "aggressively recruited" by Schumer.

News of the "Fight Club" alliance comes after a small group of centrist Democrats, with Schumer's tacit blessing, capitulated to President Donald Trump and Republicans earlier this month by agreeing to end the government shutdown without an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, even as health insurance premiums skyrocket nationwide.

The cave sparked widespread fury, much of it directed at Schumer. Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group that typically aligns with Democrats, has said it will not support any Senate Democratic primary candidate who does not call on Schumer to step down as minority leader.

"We must turn the page on this era of cowardice," Indivisible said following Senate Democrats' capitulation. "We must nominate and elect Democratic candidates who have an actual backbone. And we must ensure that the kind of failed leadership we see from Senator Schumer does not doom a future Democratic majority."

Thus far, no sitting member of the Senate Democratic caucus has demanded Schumer's resignation. But the emergence of the "Fight Club" is the latest evidence that the Democratic leader's support is beginning to crumble.

"Absolutely love to see this," progressive strategist Robert Cruickshank wrote on social media in response to the Times reporting. "So glad there are some Senate Dems willing to fight back."

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