The shutdown messaging fight was in full swing Wednesday, as federal agencies ceased operations after funding lapsed at midnight and both parties sought to cast each other as responsible.
The shutdown, which will force hundreds of thousands of federal workers off the job and requires others to work without pay until lawmakers vote to resume appropriations for federal agencies, comes over a year before the midterm elections and prompted quite the blame game in Washington.
“The blame for this reckless decision and the harm it will cause working families rests squarely with the Democrats, and it will cost them their seats next November,” North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm, said in a statement.
His Democratic counterpart, Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, said Republicans “own this government shutdown.”
“Republicans can’t even be bothered to come to the negotiating table, instead they are running scared and refuse to come to D.C. to do their jobs,” she said in a statement.
The House voted two weeks ago, mostly along party lines, to extend federal funding for another seven weeks before departing for a recess. Maine Democrat Jared Golden, one of the chamber’s most vulnerable members, was the only Democrat to vote for the bill. But the measure has not been able to advance in the Senate.
Democrats want to negotiate with Republicans on extending enhanced health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, which they argue would cause certain health insurance premiums to spike. But Republicans counter that because the subsidies don’t expire for another three months, they can negotiate separately from a stopgap funding extension and that lawmakers should reopen the government before striking any deal.
Golden, whose largely rural district backed President Donald Trump by 9 points last year, pinned the blame for the shutdown on his party’s left flank.
“This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump,” he said on social media Wednesday.
Golden, who faces a tough challenge from former GOP Gov. Paul LePage in 2026, said that he supports extending the tax credits but that Republicans “have reasonable concerns about tax credits going to high-income households.”
But Democrats, largely from blue-leaning states or districts, say they have the public on their side.
“I know we can win this fight with the American public if we are loud and bold about it. The American public don’t want their premiums to go up by 75 percent. They don’t want this lawlessness,” Connecticut Sen. Christopher S. Murphy told reporters. “I want us to show a backbone right now.”
That’s a strategy the activist wing of the party is applauding.
“I am cheering on [Senate Minority Leader Charles E.] Schumer. I am cheering on [House Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries,’’ said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the liberal group Indivisible. “I am encouraging them to hold the line.”
Progressives exploded in anger in March, when Schumer and nine other members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted with Republicans to advance an extension of government funding until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, temporarily averting a shutdown.
“They understand that it was a strategic mistake to just roll over and play dead in March, and they got the message,’’ said Levin, adding that millions of activists took to the streets to protest what they viewed as Democratic acquiescence.
The group is organizing a new wave of “No Kings” protests on Oct. 18 as it seeks to keep the pressure on vulnerable Republicans and Democrats alike.
But Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said he doubts a hard-line stance in defense of Democratic positions is going to help the party’s incumbents who represent purple swaths of the country, such as Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff.
“If you’re a vulnerable Democrat up for reelection and you’re being asked to walk the plank, at the end of the day you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s in my best interest?’” Bonjean said. “Right now, someone like Sen. Ossoff can take a vote on behalf of the Senate Democratic leadership, but eventually he’s going to receive lots of negative attention in his state.”
Already, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has released multiple digital ads attacking Ossoff, its top target in next year’s elections. One ad says he “stabbed our veterans in the back, voting with Schumer to shut down the government.”
Winning over voters
Recent polling on what Americans think of the government shutdown has painted a mixed picture.
A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist survey found that more voters would blame Republicans (38 percent) than Democrats (27 percent) for a shutdown, while 31 percent would find fault with both parties.
But according to a New York Times-Siena University poll released this week, 65 percent of registered voters said Democrats should not shut down the government even if their demands aren’t met, while 27 percent said they should.
Some campaign strategists said Democrats, particularly those from swing districts, need to hew close to the message that Trump would rather shut down the government than protect health care for millions of Americans.
“It’s a pretty simple message,” said Jonathan Kott, a partner at Capitol Counsel who was a senior adviser to former Sen. Joe Manchin III.
Several Democratic House candidates seemed to be heeding that advice, including former Iowa state Rep. Christina Bohannan, who is challenging GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for the third time.
“Over and over again, Representative Miller-Meeks votes to drive up costs for Iowans,” Bohannan said in a statement. “Now, she’s digging in her heels on a budget that doubles Iowans’ health insurance premiums and guts Medicaid.”
For her part, Miller-Meeks framed the shutdown as Democrats’ choice.
“Democrats are choosing to hold America hostage for their radical priorities,” she said on social media. “They could reopen the government right now with a simple, bipartisan extension.”
GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, who represents a Colorado swing district, said Democrats had “abandoned the American people” in forcing a shutdown. One of his Democratic opponents, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, said Republicans “chose chaos.”
In a Trump-won district in northwestern Ohio, GOP challenger Alea Nadeem accused Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of voting to shut down the government “to protect free health care giveaways for illegal immigrants.” Trump and other high-ranking Republicans have lodged similar claims, even though undocumented immigrants are barred from taxpayer-funded health care programs.
Kaptur signaled that she was ready to work toward “bipartisan compromise.”
“Speaker [Mike] Johnson needs to do his job, call us back, and work in good faith to find the ‘Big Middle,’’’ she posted on social media.
Ad spending spikes
Several campaign-related groups announced new ads this week in the lead-up to and the immediate aftermath of the shutdown.
Democratic groups Majority Forward and Duty and Honor released new spots targeting GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.
“Susan Collins supported cutting Medicaid and raising health care costs. She’s even willing to shut down the government to do it,” says one ad running on YouTube, CTV and digital streaming platforms in Maine.
That followed digital ads from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee earlier this week targeting Sullivan, Collins, Sens. Jon Husted of Ohio and John Cornyn of Texas, and Iowa Rep. and Senate hopeful Ashley Hinson.
House Majority Forward, a super PAC with ties to House Democratic leadership, previously announced a $3 million ad campaign targeting Republicans across 10 districts.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, announced a modest digital ad buy in 42 districts, including 25 held by Democrats and 17 by Republicans, calling on Democrats to “stop the shutdown.”
“Democrats learned nothing since they were destroyed in last year’s elections, and they’ll once again pay dearly for this pointless shutdown in 2026,” Alex Latcham, the executive director of the GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund, said in a statement.
Whether the finger-pointing over the shutdown will be a factor in next year’s midterms remains unclear. Like in past situations, the intensity of the current political fight may soften with time.
“I doubt that a shutdown is going to really impact vulnerable members in an election that’s 13 months away,” said Bonjean, the GOP strategist. “Yes, if this shutdown were to go until April of next year and have a devastating economic impact on our country and on people beyond the federal workforce, then there will be a price to pay at the polls for those members.”
“But right now, we’re just at the beginning of this.”
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