Their view is that Democrats could not identify the new state voting laws as an existential threat to democracy and make voting rights their top priority and then shy from holding a vote because they could not prevail.

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Schumer, far from beaten down, expressed pride in the way Democrats had handled the fight. He said Democratic senators and their allies recognized that such a battle could not be won in a single clash, but could never be won at all if the fight was not joined.

“On civil rights, it is not linear,” said Mr. Schumer, pointing to a positive response from activists who urged Democrats to go to the mat on voting rights even though they were not going to succeed. “You’ve got to keep fighting. And they see that the Democrats really fought for something we believed in, even if we couldn’t win.”