Some Senate Democrats terminated the agreement. restart the government The landslide election victory fueled an intraparty battle over strategy and identity, days after raising hopes that the leftist factions were heading in the same direction heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
The latest fault lines in the Democratic Party don’t entirely align with the familiar divide between progressives and centrists. Instead, there is renewed animosity over how aggressively to fight President Donald Trump and his pliant Republican majority on Capitol Hill, with some progressives renewing their calls for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to step down despite publicly opposing the latest deal.
The left is furious that eight centrist senators, all of whom are not up for re-election in 2026, struck a deal with Republicans that does not guarantee a key Democratic demand: an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies that expire at the end of the year. They argue that the agreement means Mr. Schumer has been unable to hold his caucus together.
Some moderates are dissatisfied, or at least walking a political tightrope, after Democrats agreed for more than a month to: longest federal government shutdown in history This was ultimately a way to use limited influence to achieve policy and political victories in the Republican-dominated capital.
The abrupt end to the standoff underscores the difficulty of maintaining Democrats’ fragile and fractious coalition, as party leaders including Mr. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries continue to blame Republicans for looming health insurance premium hikes and other repercussions of a government shutdown.
“Republicans have learned that they can harm communities and harm ordinary people, including their own voters, and the Democratic Party will dissolve,” said Maurice Mitchell, who heads the progressive Working Families Party.
said New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, who won the state by more than twice the Democratic margin in 2024. victory like her It showed that voters “want leadership with backbone” that “remains strong under pressure.”
Instead, she said in a statement that “the Senate is on the brink of collapse.”
Democratic dealmakers say there was no viable alternative
Democrats, who signed the deal, countered that they had little choice. Republicans have not budged, countering that the Trump administration has withheld food aid payments to low-income Americans and mandated the delay of planes at airports strained by a shortage of air traffic controllers, making them unable to withstand prolonged shutdown pressure.
Democrats agreed to a pledge from Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota to hold a vote on ACA subsidies in December, along with guarantees for back pay for federal workers who have fallen behind on their paychecks and other policy details.
“This was the only deal that was on the table,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat.
Democrats also noted that after the Republican election loss, President Trump called on Republican senators to end the filibuster and bypass the minority altogether. Centrists argued that this showed it was impossible for Republican senators to negotiate. push back To protect the filibuster.
“After 40 days, it hasn’t worked,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said of Democrats’ demands.
“The government shutdown seemed like an opportunity to lead us to better policy, and it didn’t work out,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Mr. Schumer’s acting House leader.
That wasn’t enough for many center-left and some swing-state Democrats.
Holders in the Senate included Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who won a seat in 2024 as Trump won Michigan and other battleground states in the industrial Midwest, and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, the only Democratic senator. run for re-election in 2026 In a state Trump won in 2024.
“Premiums are set to double for 1.4 million Georgians, and nearly 500,000 Georgians could lose their health insurance entirely,” Ossoff said in a statement, before shifting the blame to Republicans. “The President refuses to fix the problem and is withholding SNAP benefits while the House is out of work for six weeks.”
Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said the situation embodies a larger problem for the party: Democrats are playing by the usual rules, while Republicans are using more brazen tactics.
“You wonder what the fight was for and why the sacrifices were made,” McMorrow said, adding that some senators govern out of “nostalgia” without understanding the new situation. “Refusing to evolve and recognizing that this is not the same Senate as it was 10 years ago, or even five years ago, means the party can never win.”
The agreement highlights generational rifts in the Democratic Party.
None of the eight senators at the heart of the deal will be eligible to vote in 2026, and their average age is over 65. Shaheen, 78, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, 80, have already announced their retirement ahead of the midterm elections.
Mr. Shaheen found himself running against his daughter, Stephanie Shaheen, 51, who is running for the New Hampshire State Assembly. The younger Shaheen noted that Johnson has so far refused to schedule a House vote on ACA insurance support.
“We need to end this shutdown and extend the ACA tax credits,” she said in a statement. “Otherwise, there will be no contract.”
This is a particularly difficult development for Schumer. The 74-year-old New Yorker faced withering criticism for not shutting down the government in the spring. Last Friday, his name was mentioned at CrookedCon, a gathering of progressives in Washington. drew jeers and boos.even though he remained dug in for the shutdown fight.
The age of the Democratic Party’s national leadership and its related claim that the party is independent of its base have defined aspects of the party’s dynamics in recent years. Especially since Joe Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, facing re-election at age 82. But Biden, and especially former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is retiring from the House of Representatives at age 85, was recognized for her efforts to push through important legislation during Biden’s presidency.
Mr. Schumer, 74, has never received similar recognition for his role in the Senate and now faces criticism for not uniting the caucus, even though polls and election results suggest voters are on the side of Democrats. Schumer’s aides did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
“Chuck Schumer’s legacy is not in victories, but in caves,” Adam Green, chairman of the Progressive Change Movement Committee, wrote in a letter to his organization’s supporters on Monday, calling for Schumer’s resignation. “The best way to unify the Democratic Party and win big in 2026 is to make it clear that the new generation of Democratic senators we elect will not follow Chuck Schumer’s path to defeat.”
Democrats still want Republicans to take the lead on health insurance cuts
Durbin and others argue that the six-week fight has yielded tangible results by elevating health care issues, and that the promised votes will leave each Republican on the record. They reason that this vote, and the public conversation leading up to it, will once again hold Trump and his party accountable for the negative impact it has had on Americans.
“We’ll be in court in December,” Durbin argued.
Meanwhile, Mitchell said progressives are already looking ahead to 2026, starting with the outcome of the Democratic primary vote.
“We are not proud that our friends in the Democratic Party have capitulated,” he said. “But this story shows why we need a fighting opposition right now.”
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Cappelletti reported from Chicago.
