Six House Democrats on Wednesday crossed the aisle to vote in favor of a funding measure aimed at ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The Democrats provided a cushion for Speaker Johnson (R-La.) to get the measure across the finish line after two House Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) — opposed the bill.
Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Democrats voted overwhelmingly to oppose the spending package, citing the absence of language to address expiring ObamaCare subsidies.
But six Democrats bucked their own leadership to help reopen the government after 43 days: Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.).
Almost all of them are facing tough reelection contests in next year’s midterms.
The Democrats helped GOP leaders pass the measure relatively easily, 222 to 209.
Golden’s vote was widely expected. The Maine centrist has carved out a reputation as an independent-minded pragmatist — one who’s been willing to vote against the grain of his party when it suits his district. And on previous spending votes, he’s said he’ll never support shutting down the government. Last week, he announced that he will not seek reelection next year.
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Gluesenkamp Perez was also not a surprise, as she had previously said she cannot “in good conscience vote to shut down the government.” She wrote on X after the vote that “the fight to stop runaway health insurance premiums won’t be won by holding hungry Americans hostage.”
“Americans can’t afford for their Representatives to get so caught up in landing a partisan win that they abandon their obligation to come together to solve the urgent problems that our nation faces,” she said.
The Cook Political Report rates her seat a “toss up” in next year’s elections.
These Democrats also pointed to the fact that the shutdown has made life harder for their constituents.
The shutdown, which stretched for over a month, has left thousands of federal workers furloughed and Americans without food assistance.
Cuellar said the stability provided by passing the stopgap measure would be “especially important” for border communities, where families depend on federal agencies for trade, travel and other matters.
Cuellar’s district was among those altered by the new House map in Texas, drawn by GOP state lawmakers at Trump’s request to pad the Republicans’ slim majority in the lower chamber. Still, Cuellar says he likes his chances in a region he’s represented for more than two decades. The handicappers at Cook say his race is a “toss up.”
Likewise, Davis said in a statement that an “increasing number of families” have shared with him that they’ve been “suffering daily” over the shutdown. Of the six Democrats, he faces the toughest reelection headwinds after North Carolina Republicans redrew the state map with the singular purpose of picking off his seat. The Cook handicappers put his district in the “likely Republican” column.
Suozzi, one of the leaders of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said that he’s been “preaching bipartisanship for years.” He said he trusts Republicans to act on the ACA subsidies before premiums skyrocket at the start of next year.
“I am relying on the representations of some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that they want to get something done to extend the Premium Tax Credits,” Suozzi wrote on X.
Suozzi is in a safer seat than some of the other “yes” votes, though Cook still rates the contest in a competitive “lean Democrat” category.
Gray said in an October statement that he does not support a shutdown.
“It’s bad for our nation, dangerous for our security, and devastating for our economy and Valley families. The only way forward is bipartisan compromise — not partisan threats or political games,” he wrote at the time.
On the GOP side, Massie was an expected no vote. He has a long history of opposing government funding bills — even those crafted by his party — to protest levels of spending he considers unreasonable.
Steube wrote on X that he opposed the bill because it included a provision that would allow senators to earn a significant amount of money from litigation challenging the seizure of their phone records as part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack probe.
“There is no reason the House should have been forced to eat this garbage to end the Schumer Shutdown,” Steube said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said House Republicans would introduce legislation to repeal the provision.
