Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Congress held their ground against President Donald Trump, resulting in the longest federal government shutdown in American history. However, with several Democratic senators agreeing to a deal to end the shutdown, the party risks losing some of the political edge they’ve gained over the past six weeks.
Throughout the shutdown, polls consistently indicated that Democrats were winning the public opinion battle. A significant majority of voters were pointing fingers at the Republicans in Congress or Trump himself, rather than blaming the Democrats for the situation. These polls also revealed that most voters supported the Democrats on the key issue at the heart of the congressional standoff: the potential increase in health insurance premiums for millions of Americans due to expiring subsidies.
Despite 40 days of the shutdown, all the Democrats have secured is a Republican commitment to hold a Senate vote on extending the subsidies, a promise that had been on the table for weeks and a vote they are likely to lose. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson even taunted the Democrats, drawing parallels with a popular TV show.
Several U.S. Democratic senators have had to justify their decision to vote along with the Republicans in order to start the process of ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
“It really was a shutdown about nothing,” remarked Johnson in an interview, suggesting that the Democrats gained little from the standoff. Critics also labeled the deal as “pathetic,” as it mainly focused on reinstating federal workers’ jobs that were cut during the shutdown.
Gavin Newsom criticizes the deal
Aside from the vote on extending health insurance subsidies, the main achievement for Democrats in the deal was reverting to the pre-shutdown situation by reinstating the axed federal jobs. This move sparked criticism from prominent Democrats who expected a more hardline approach from their leadership.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2028, criticized the deal as a “surrender.”
- Juliana Stratton, Illinois’ lieutenant governor and a U.S. Senate candidate, called it a “complete betrayal.”
- Keith Olbermann, a former anchor turned commentator, labeled the Democrats as “feckless traitors.”
However, could the Democrats argue that they achieved some intangible gains?
Since their electoral losses in the previous year,