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It’s been hard to turn on the TV news or open a news website this week without catching California Rep. Kevin Kiley.
As The New York Times headline put it, Kiley’s been “the lonely House Republican still coming to work.”
“The House has a lot of things to do, including, by the way, passing our actual appropriation bills,” the second-term lawmaker told NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” on Tuesday. “The very fact that we have a government shutdown is all the more reason to be here so that we can do everything we possibly can to end this terrible thing for the American people.”
Kiley’s presence at the Capitol has gotten so much attention in part because public GOP criticism of Speaker Mike Johnson over his handling of the shutdown has been extraordinarily rare. The Louisiana Republican has continued to argue that the ball is fully in the Senate’s court.
Just three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus have crossed over to support the House-passed stopgap measure, including Maine independent Angus King.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, also supported the Republican continuing resolution, and Janet Mills, Maine’s term-limited Democratic governor who is now running for Senate, seemed to suggest in a Semafor interview that she would be open to bucking Democratic leadership, as well, if she’s elected.
The funding lapse is now in the third week, with paychecks for federal workers starting to be missed, although President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to find funds to pay the troops as scheduled on Wednesday.
Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, there could be effects that voters remember — particularly with the Trump administration, and especially Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, predicting more federal layoffs.
But the reality is that it’s October 2025, not October 2026, and it’s very possible this will all be ancient history by the midterm elections.
Democrats continue to argue that funding for premium tax credits for insurance plans under the 2010 health care law needs to be extended as part of reopening the government. That’s a position Republicans almost uniformly reject.
“I don’t care what the polls say. Nobody wins in a government shutdown. The government needs to open up again, and holding it hostage to do stuff like what they’re trying to do has just never been done before,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday.
Starting gate
Show us the money: Campaign finance filings for the third quarter are in, and we look at how fundraising is shaping up in key House and Senate races.
#MESEN: Mills’ entrance into the race to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins sets up a Democratic primary that could pit the party establishment against a newer face. Brewer Dan Kleban suspended his campaign and endorsed the governor on Tuesday.
#MASEN: Six years after dispatching a primary opponent who ran on a message of generational change, Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey is facing a fresh challenge from another younger fellow Democrat. This time, his opponent is Rep. Seth Moulton, a Gen Xer who is seeking to draw a contest between himself and the 79-year-old incumbent.
Joining the family business: When Arizona Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva is sworn in to Congress, she’ll be the latest in a growing list of lawmakers who followed their parents to Capitol Hill, Roll Call’s Nick Eskow writes. While being a “political nepo baby” can offer benefits such as higher name ID, it can also offer pitfalls of being too closely tied to a parent.
Shutdown ads: The Democratic National Committee has launched an ad campaign targeting eight House Republicans as campaign groups seek to pin the blame for the ongoing government shutdown on the other party. The DNC’s campaign is focused on notices for health insurance premium rates that Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollees are set to receive this month.
#VAGOV: Revelations that Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, sent text messages that referenced the hypothetical killing of a political opponent and his family have shook up next month’s race for governor between Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Going (back) to Carolina: North Carolina Republicans are set to consider another congressional map next week just two years after a GOP-led redraw helped them flip three Democrat-held seats.
A case with consequences: The Supreme Court this week appeared ready to rule against requiring Louisiana to have a second Black-majority House district, as conservative and liberal justices clashed at oral arguments over the role of race in congressional redistricting, our colleague Ryan Tarinelli reports.
New endorsements: The Latino Victory Fund is endorsing four Democrats seeking to flip battleground districts in 2026: Tejano musician Bobby Pulido in Texas’ 15th District, school board trustee Randy Villegas in California’s 22nd, nonprofit executive Effie Guadalupe Phillips-Staley in New York’s 17th, and state Rep. Manny Rutinel in Colorado’s 8th.
RIP: Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a former Congressional Black Caucus chair who represented the Detroit area for more than 14 years in the House before losing a Democratic primary in 2010, died last week at age 80. Our colleague Noella Kertes has more on the late Michigan congresswoman.
ICYMI
Endorsement corner: United Auto Workers has endorsed Democrat Graham Platner in Maine’s Senate race. Ohio Sen. Jon Husted picked up the support of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 66, the third labor union endorsement the appointed Republican senator has received. The group endorsed his likely Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, in 2024. Alabama Rep. Barry Moore, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, has won the backing of former caucus chair Jim Jordan in his campaign for the state’s open Senate seat. In Texas’ 8th District, retiring Republican Rep. Morgan Luttrell has endorsed Jessica Hart Steinmann, a former Ted Cruz and DOJ staffer, in the race to succeed him. And in New Jersey’s 7th District, Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a retired Navy helicopter pilot, has the support of New York Rep. Pat Ryan, an Army veteran, in her challenge to Republican incumbent Thomas H. Kean Jr.
Blum out: Former Rep. Rod Blum is scrapping his bid to return to Congress. The Iowa Republican this week suspended his campaign to succeed Senate hopeful Ashley Hinson in the state’s 2nd District, according to the Des Moines Register.
Battleground launches: Former California state Sen. Richard Pan, a Democrat, launched a run against Kiley in the 3rd District, which could get more Democratic should voters approve the state’s new congressional map next month. In New Hampshire, businessman Anthony DiLorenzo entered the Republican primary for the open 1st District. He told WMUR that he would invest some of his own money in his campaign to succeed Democrat Chris Pappas, who is running for Senate. In Kentucky’s 6th District, Greg Plucinski, a retired pharmaceutical executive, is the latest Republican to seek the seat that GOP Rep. Andy Barr is vacating to run for Senate. In New Mexico, businessman Jose Orozco joined the GOP primary to take on Democrat Gabe Vasquez in the 2nd District. And in Texas, Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia has entered the Democratic primary for the 35th District seat state that Republicans recently redrew to be more favorable to them.
Redistricting roundup: Utah Republicans are seeking to repeal the state’s redistricting laws and the new congressional map recently approved by the Legislature. The party has until the middle of next month to gather enough signatures for both efforts. In Kansas, state Republicans approved a budget for a special session to take up redistricting. There’s currently a petition circulating among state GOP lawmakers to call the special session, starting on Nov. 7. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Democratic members of the Illinois delegation to talk about mid-decade redistricting in their state, as Democrats try to counter Republicans’ growing moves to redraw congressional lines before the 2026 elections.
#TXGOV: Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa is the latest Democrat to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term next year. Hinojosa joins a crowded primary that already includes businessman Andrew White and rancher Bobby Cole. Bay City Councilmember Benjamin Flores announced he was endorsing Hinojosa and switching from the governor’s race to the contest for Texas land commissioner.
A Big Easy victory: Helena Moreno will be the first Latina mayor of New Orleans after the city councilwoman won Saturday’s election with 55 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff. She will succeed the city’s first female mayor, fellow Democrat LaToya Cantrell.
Back in the arena: Democratic former Rep. Charlie Crist is weighing a run for mayor of his Florida hometown of St. Petersburg. Crist is also a former Republican governor who lost a bid for his old job to incumbent Ron DeSantis in 2022.
No soup for you: A long-shot House candidate from Michigan is being sued for trademark infringement after refusing to stop using the Campbell’s soup logo. Shelby N. Campbell, who calls her campaign Soup4Change, is among a handful of Democrats taking on Rep. Shri Thanedar in next year’s primary for the Detroit-area 13th District.
What we’re reading
Pain in Maine: Senate hopeful Graham Platner once called himself a “communist” and described “all” police as bastards, CNN’s KFile found in an investigation of the Maine Democrat’s deleted past social media posts. Platner, a Marine veteran, disavowed the posts in an interview with the news outlet, saying they did not reflect who he is today.
Focus on Mamdani: The New York Times Magazine dropped a lengthy profile of Zohran Mamdani, the city’s Democratic nominee for mayor. Among other details, the piece revealed Mamdani’s breakfast choices, his efforts to win over skeptics and how the race has become a stand-in for the larger divisions shaping Democratic politics. City & State New York offers another angle on Mamdani’s unlikely rise by interviewing one of its architects: his campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church.
Voters’ voices: The Associated Press spoke to officials in Mansfield, La., a small city situated in a Black-majority congressional district in the Bayou State that is at the center of the Supreme Court case testing the landmark Voting Rights Act.
Polling says: While polls show voters blame Republicans for the ongoing government shutdown, the same voters say they trust the GOP, not Democrats, on economic issues. As Politico reports, that “underscores an electoral hurdle for the party,” which has made lowering health care costs its central message in the shutdown fight.
Racist messages: Politico broke the story this week about leaked racist and violent chat messages from leaders of Young Republican groups. Many high-profile GOP figures were quick to denounce the remarks, although Vice President JD Vance appeared to downplay the contents of the messages. The New York Times has more on the fallout.
Hey, big spender: The most expensive political ad campaign of the off-year election cycle so far is being funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Axios reports that the Department of Homeland Security has laid out at least $51 million for ads promoting Trump’s immigration policies. That’s about $16 million more than what Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger has spent in Virginia. DHS disputes that the ads, which are airing nationally, are political.
The count: $3.3 million
That’s how much money remains in the Senate campaign committee account of Maine Democrat Sara Gideon, who spent more than $50 million five years ago on an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Gideon, a former state House speaker, raised a whopping $74.2 million that cycle, leaving her campaign with more money than it could figure out how to spend.
While Gideon spent an average of more than $60 for every Mainer who cast a vote in the race, Collins wound up winning by a comfortable 9-point margin despite trailing in the polls for much of the race. Gideon’s campaign was left with $11.6 million in unspent cash as 2020 came to a close.
In the years since, her campaign has spent down millions of those unused funds. In the third quarter of 2025, it donated $383,000 to a handful of local progressive charitable organizations, including Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Save Maine Absentee Voting and Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence.
— By Roll Call’s Ryan Kelly
Coming up
Organizers anticipate a flood of people across the nation hitting the streets Saturday to protest Trump administration policies. Turnout for the “No Kings” demonstrations is expected to surpass that of a similar wave of protests in June, according to the grassroots group Indivisible. Meanwhile, GOP leaders have slammed the planned gatherings, which House Speaker Mike Johnson has dubbed the “Hate America” rally.
Photo finish
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The post At the Races: No end in sight appeared first on Roll Call.
