Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus broke ranks Sunday and voted to advance a deal to reopen the federal government.

That’s fewer than the 10 Democrats who broke ranks in March to advance a previous GOP-led stopgap funding bill — a move that sparked a huge backlash against Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

There are few obvious threads connecting the group who broke the partisan impasse this time. Some of them helped broker the agreement with Republicans over the opposition of Schumer and most other Democrats, who wanted a guaranteed extension for expiring federal health insurance subsidies.

Most, but not all, previously held state-level office — including four former governors. Most, but not all, come from presidential swing states. Two have announced they are retiring from the Senate after their current terms end, and two are senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. None are up for reelection in 2026.

The vote remains open Sunday night as Senate leaders await the arrival of all 100 senators, but these eight members have already cast their votes, with most issuing statements explaining why:

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

Cortez Masto has voted 15 times to end the federal government shutdown, even before Democrats had extracted the promise of a vote on the health care tax credits. She repeatedly stated she did not want to inflict sweeping pain on some Americans in order to extract a solution to “the impending health care crisis” of expiring tax credits.

She described “lines like I haven’t seen since the pandemic” for food banks in Nevada to reporters during the vote Sunday night and said that that opening the government “was key to stopping that pain.”

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois

Durbin is the Democratic whip and the only member of party leadership who voted with Republicans to advance the deal to end the shutdown. His likely successor as whip, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), voted against advancing the deal after sticking with Schumer and Durbin in March.

“This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” Durbin said in a statement. “Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December.” He is retiring next year after three decades in office.

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

Fetterman is the only Democrat who has voted each and every time to end the shutdown. He’s knocked his party for sparking the shutdown and blamed them for government workers missing paychecks and low income families losing federal food aid.

Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

Hassan, who was one of the Democrats who negotiated the vote on the Affordable Care Act tax credits deal. A former New Hampshire governor, she is up for reelection in 2028.

“I’ve heard from Granite Staters who can’t afford a doubling of their health insurance costs. I’ve also heard from families about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused,” Hassan told reporters Sunday, highlighting the dueling pressures Democrats were under to cut a deal.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia

Kaine represents about 150,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown and backed the deal that includes a key provision for his state: reinstatement of federal workers impacted by mass “reduction in force” firings during the shutdown.

“This legislation will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay,” he said in a statement. Kaine admitted Sunday night that he was a latecomer to the group, saying, “I joined it 48 hours ago, not for lack of interest.”

Sen. Angus King of Maine

King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was a key negotiator on the deal struck to guarantee a vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits once the government is open. He hosted multiple meetings in his Capitol hideaway in recent weeks as the compromise came together.

A former governor of Maine, King pointed to the pain the shutdown is causing with federal aid programs halted. “We are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits for the people of this country than we were yesterday, than we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago,” he said Sunday.

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada

Rosen joined her fellow Nevadan Cortez Masto to vote to advance the deal, representing a state where 95,000 Nevadans utilize the ACA tax credits. Like King, she was just reelected in 2024.

“Trump and his Republican cronies on Capitol Hill do not give a damn about hurting working people, and their conduct over the last month has been nothing short of appalling, Rosen said in a statement. She called the ACA tax credit vote “the concession we’ve been able to extract.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Shaheen was an original sponsor of the legislation that created the enhanced Obamacare tax credits that have been central to the shutdown dispute and played a key role in negotiating the vote to extend them. Like Durbin, she is retiring from the Senate next year and has spent much of her Senate career on the Appropriations Committee. She was also part of shaping the new stopgap spending bill that, in tandem with the ACA vote promise, could open the government.

“This was the only deal on the table. It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits,” Shaheen said Sunday night.

Senators have reached a deal to end the government shutdown.

The agreement, which was negotiated in part by Sens. Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan as well as GOP senators, has “more than enough” members of the Senate Democratic Caucus to advance, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose the terms.

Senate Republicans are expected to support the agreement.

The Senate is poised to vote later Sunday night to advance the House-passed stopgap, which will later become the vehicle for the larger funding deal.

That vote would tee up consideration later this week of a legislative package that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress, for the full fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30, according to text of a continuing resolution released Sunday.

As part of Democrats’ agreement to end the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is promising Senate Democrats a vote in December to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year short of Congressional action. Democrats will also get to determine what extension bill gets a vote.

The government-opening agreement also guarantees that federal employees laid off during the shutdown are re-hired and gives federal employees backpay.

Many progressives in the Senate — along with a large number of House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — think anything short of a deal to pass an extension of the tax credits as part of a government funding bill is insufficient.

“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives, where [Speaker] Mike Johnson will be compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer-funded vacation,” Jeffries said in a statement.

House Democratic leadership has insisted the health subsidies be addressed in legislation rather than a handshake compromise, especially as Johnson has refused to offer Democrats the same promise of a vote on an extension in his chamber.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is confident Democrats will regain control of the House in the 2026 midterms, even as the party continues to battle over the government shutdown.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Jeffries told Kristen Welker that Tuesday’s election results were “decisive.”

“Democrats are definitely going to take back control of the House of Representatives, and we’re going to stay focused on the issues that matter: lowering the high cost of living, fixing our broken health care system and cleaning up corruption to actually deliver a country that works for working class Americans, for everyday Americans and for middle class Americans,” Jeffries said.

The New York Democrat had slightly less confidence about his party’s chances to regain control of the Senate, instead saying there is a “strong and viable” pathway to Democratic control in the upper chamber.

“The American people have had enough and they want a government that actually puts them first as opposed to what Republicans have been doing, prioritizing the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected,” Jeffries said.

Democrats won most of the critical races on Tuesday, including gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and New York’s mayoral race, as well as the vote on California’s redistricting amendment.

Jeffries credited New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win, in part, to a platform centered on affordability — something he said Democrats around the nation are working on.

“This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world,” Jeffries said. “It’s unacceptable that far too many people are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck.”

Still, the party will have its work cut out for it, particularly as some high profile Democrats announce retirement. Democrats now control 213 seats of 435, with one Democrat waiting to be sworn in (Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva). There is also a vacant seat in Texas for which two Democrats are competing in a runoff.

Democrats in the Senate have, when counting two independents who caucus with them, 47 of 100 seats.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced her retirement just after Tuesday’s elections. Jeffries on Sunday commended the former speaker as a “legendary, heroic, historic, transformational figure.”

Meanwhile, concerns over the cost of living are only rising as the government shutdown continues. But Jeffries said he is hopeful the shutdown will end before the Thanksgiving holiday — so long as Democrats and Republicans are able to negotiate.

For weeks, the two parties have struggled to come to a consensus, with Democratic leaders arguing GOP leadership and President Donald Trump have refused to negotiate. Still, Jeffries said, his caucus will continue to have a presence on Capitol Hill even as Speaker Mike Johnson keeps the House out of session.

“We’ll be in Washington as House Democrats ready, willing and able to reopen the government to make life better for the American people and to address the health care crisis that has been devastating the country,” Jeffries said.

President Donald Trump’s retribution campaign against his political adversaries could soon hit the Senate — and lawmakers are already bracing for impact.

After securing the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump has his sights set on Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who as a member of the House managed the president’s first impeachment trial.

If Schiff ends up indicted on allegations of mortgage fraud — a charge he has vehemently denied — or for any other claim, it would mark an unprecedented escalation for Trump to target an outspoken political adversary who is also a federal elected official.

As Schiff solicits dollars for a legal defense fund and builds an expansive political operation prepared to do damage control around any potential charges, Schiff’s Democratic colleagues in Congress are increasingly anxious about their own vulnerability. They are also frustrated with the unwillingness of Republican senators to speak out on Schiff’s behalf.

“I’ve spoken to a number of Republicans, and they are certainly disquieted, if not dismayed, by the increasing weaponization of the Department of Justice,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “Because it tears down the norms and rule of law that protects them and all Americans, as well as Adam Schiff and Democrats who may be targeted by Trump.”

It has been just a few months since news broke that Schiff was being investigated for mortgage fraud relating to the financing of his Maryland residence — and weeks since Trump in a social media post called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after Schiff, Comey and James. Recent reports have suggested the case against Schiff has stalled as prosecutors are said to be struggling to find sufficient evidence to bring up charges.

“[Trump has] been more than willing to go after his political opponents — to go after universities, to go after law firms, to go after media organizations,” Schiff said last week. “It’s all part of the same effort to silence and intimidate critics and, I think, needs to be recognized for what it is.”

The investigation remains ongoing, however. And FBI Director Kash Patel, another longtime Schiff foe, continues to brandish accusations that Schiff, as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, sought to leak potentially damaging information about Trump. 

A report from the DOJ Office of Inspector General, in which names have been redacted, found that the witness levying the leaking charges against Schiff had “little support for their contentions.” Schiff, through a spokesperson, has denied the claims.

Lawmakers of both parties are now closely watching to see what will become of Schiff. Interviews with senators revealed concerns that their institution is at risk of becoming further polarized if the DOJ goes ahead with charges.

“You can’t go around threatening people everyday and have a collaborative environment,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Democrats are on edge, worrying a Schiff indictment would open the floodgates to more targeting of Democratic elected officials. Many Republicans are either visibly uncomfortable with the dynamics or unwilling to weigh in on a matter that could put them crosswise with the president.

Because Trump took the step of publicly calling on his attorney general to go after Schiff — a break with historical precedent in which the White House has kept its distance from the Justice Department — an indictment would play out differently on Capitol Hill than past episodes where lawmakers have found themselves under legal scrutiny.

The most recent senatorial indictment — of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), accused of bribery in 2023 — presented an awkward situation for many of his longtime colleagues in both parties. Most Democrats repeated the “innocent until proven guilty” mantra while praising him for stepping aside from his leadership post atop the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the case worked through the system.

Menendez was convicted at trial and is now serving an 11-year prison sentence. In recent months, he has sought to endear himself to Trump, who has pardon-granting power.

But Schiff’s indictment would challenge those old norms in almost every way. Democrats are expected to rush to his defense and blast the Trump administration for carrying out a personal vendetta. Many Republicans will have to decide how strongly to push back, if they do at all.

Senate Democrats concede they are nervous about the looming threat. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, for instance, said in an interview her team has been in touch with Schiff’s office about how to prepare to be the subject of a Trump investigation.

“We’ve already created a break-glass plan for ourselves if the spotlight turns to others in the caucus,” said Slotkin. A former CIA analyst from a swing state, her decision to support impeaching Trump in 2019 helped catalyze the successful vote in the House.

“It’s based on the experience we’ve watched Adam go through,” she continued of her own preparations. “How do you have a lawyer ready to go? How do you make sure … you know the legal left and right limits of what you can and cannot do? How do you think about a legal defense fund? I mean, there’s a lot of details.”

Schiff’s national profile precedes his current predicament, which means he’s had a considerable infrastructure supporting him. In the years between his election to the House in 2000, his rising to prominence during the first Trump administration, and then winning a Senate seat last year, he has assembled a team of Democratic firms and advisers.

He is standing up a legal defense fund and has an $8.6 million campaign war chest, more than $2 million of which was raised in the year’s most recent fundraising quarter alone — notable because he is not up for reelection until 2030.

A spokesperson for Schiff would not say how much cash is currently in the legal defense fund, but donations from any unrelated individual into that fund cannot exceed $10,000 per fiscal year and lawmakers cannot transfer campaign money into the account. Per Senate rules, members may set up a legal expense trust fund to pay for their defense, but they have to regularly disclose contributions and spending to the Senate Ethics Committee.

Schiff is being represented by the legal giant WilmerHale; one of his lawyers is Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York who was fired by Trump in 2017 for refusing to follow orders to resign as a Barack Obama-era appointee.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats want Republicans to step up and offer support, too.

“We’re in the middle of a totalitarian takeover, in part, because even threatening major political figures like Adam Schiff … with arrest undoubtedly has a chilling impact on political speech,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “It’s been heartbreaking to see relative silence from Republicans in the face of these threats.”

Schiff said he has not yet heard directly from GOP colleagues about his case. However, Murphy is among some Senate Democrats, including Blumenthal, who say they are privately back-channeling with Republicans about the DOJ’s actions against Trump’s political enemies, including Schiff.

For many of the Republican Senators who work alongside Schiff daily, the situation is complicated. Notoriously chatty Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) — Trump loyalists who serve with Schiff on the Senate Judiciary Committee — declined to discuss the matter.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) would only point to the probe’s reportedly dimming prospects when asked for his reaction to the case.

“I just go by what I saw on television, that the people in the Justice Department thought … it was a difficult case to win,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment and pointed to a recent social media post from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche denying news reports about the obstacles in charging Schiff for mortgage fraud.

Some Senate Republicans are avoiding comment on Schiff’s predicament by maligning former President Joe Biden for weaponizing the Justice Department — exactly what Democrats say is happening now under Trump.

“I don’t know the underlying facts, but I believe the Department of Justice should enforce the law and not be weaponized the way it was for four years under Joe Biden,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an interview.

Further underscoring the treacherous terrain in which Schiff now finds himself is that some Republicans are outwardly eager to have him targeted.

“Adam Schiff was probably the most corrupt member of Congress when it came to pushing the totally false collusion hoax. … He used his position as chair of Intel to push that thing,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). He was referring to the accusations during the first Trump impeachment trial that centered around claims that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up information about Biden.

Johnson, the chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is now leading an inquiry into revelations that Biden special counsel Jack Smith obtained the phone records of Republican lawmakers as part of his probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“It’s unfortunate the Democrats in California would elect someone like that who’s been censured by the House, that is so thoroughly proven a liar,” said Johnson, referring to a Republican-led 2023 House effort to condemn Schiff for his role in investigating Trump.

“He needs to be investigated,” he added.

Democrats are railing against the Trump administration after its temporary Supreme Court win paused an order that would’ve required providing full funding of SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown.

The temporary victory came late Friday night, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the administration’s request to pause a lower court order that would have required it access a separate nutrition account at the Department of Agriculture to provide full SNAP benefits for millions of Americans — leaving the fate of SNAP funding hanging in the balance for now as the government shutdown careens into its sixth week.

“The Trump administration is begging the Supreme Court to block an order requiring them to immediately release SNAP benefits,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X on Friday. “Meanwhile. Millions of hungry Americans are at risk of starving. These extremists are sick people.”

Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) also decried the pause, suggesting that Democrats would push back on the added delay to funding the program.

“Let’s be very clear,” Clark wrote on X, “Trump is making a choice not to feed hungry Americans. Democrats will be fighting back.”

“The Trump administration will go to any length — including appeal to the highest court in the land — if it means they can cut off food for hungry people,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on X on Friday. “What is wrong with them?”

The White House referred a request for comment to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB did not immediately respond.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which serves more than 40 million Americans — ran out of funds Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown. The Trump administration has continued to lock horns with Democratic governors and state leaders in a flurry of litigation seeking to resume funding SNAP.

The Department of Agriculture was slated to send out monthly allotments for November that are 65 percent of the typical maximum allotments, according to a memo the USDA sent to state agencies Wednesday. As of Saturday, it is unclear whether those allotments have been carried out as prescribed in the memo.

But Democratic state leaders have continued to urge the administration to tap into a separate Agriculture Department account, called Section 32, to renew funding to the program.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday that SNAP recipients in the Bay State could begin receiving their full benefits as early as Saturday. On Saturday morning, she said that the planned payments for families who went without earlier benefits were successfully sent out but that officials are reviewing what the latest pause means for recipients expecting benefits next week.

“President Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds,” she wrote on X.

Healey called on the president to “stop playing politics with people’s lives and pay full SNAP benefits for everyone.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who also said she directed state agencies to fully fund SNAP benefits for November — took to X on Friday, saying the administration “fought for” the decision to delay the payments.

“He doesn’t care if millions of Americans go hungry,” she said.

The Trump administration has said it doesn’t have the funds needed to restore full SNAP payments amid the ongoing shutdown. Officials argue that directing additional funds toward SNAP would pull money away from funding child nutrition programs.

“Our attorneys will not stop fighting, day and night, to defend and advance President Trump’s agenda,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X after the temporary Supreme Court win.

Votes to reopen the government have failed in the Senate 14 times, with the most recent failing 54-44, shy of the 60 votes needed to pass the House-approved continuing resolution to reopen the government. No new Democrats have crossed the aisle to support the motion as they continue to hold out for an extension to health care subsidies.

After 38 days of stalemate, the Senate is finally turning to its tactic of last resort to solve the government shutdown: a working weekend.

For the first time since the start of the nearly six-week shutdown, Majority Leader John Thune is keeping the chamber in session past Friday in a bid to keep the pressure on Democrats — at the urging of President Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans who want senators to stay in D.C. until there’s an agreement.

But with party leaders shadow boxing over competing funding and health care proposals, and bipartisan rank-and-talks moving slowly, there’s plenty of skepticism anything can get done until at least early next week.

“What we have here is an intergalactic freak show,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after a closed-door GOP conference meeting.

Asked what senators could get done in the rare weekend session, Kennedy predicted, “Nothing. … We’re going to be here for a long time.”

The Senate will come into session on Saturday at noon but has no votes scheduled for the time being. GOP leaders aren’t yet holding another vote on the House-passed stopgap bill that Democrats have already rejected 14 times, in hopes that bipartisan talks among rank-and-file senators can build enough support to reopen the government.

“We’re here, and we’ll see if something comes together we can vote on,” Thune said Friday night, adding it “remains to be seen.”

With senators essentially left to wait and see, some are expected to leave town for home-state engagements. But many said they were happy to stay given their growing frustration with how the shutdown has dragged on — and how the real-world consequences continue to pile up.

“My adage is, put them in a barn and don’t let them out until they come up with a solution,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said Friday.

Members of the bipartisan group at the center of the government funding talks are expected to stay in Washington through the weekend to keep negotiating. One person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions said that as of Friday night the bipartisan talks had picked back up. Thune said he is also speaking to Democrats “regularly” about the path forward.

On a separate track, the top members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees are trying to finalize a three-bill package that would provide full-year funding for food aid, veterans programs and other agencies and programs.

But even as the bipartisan conversations continue, there are doubts they will produce a deal that could eventually get the necessary eight Democrats to break ranks. Trump, for one, continues to press Republicans to ditch the 60-vote filibuster rule and reopen the government on party lines.

The bipartisan Senate group is talking about attaching the three full-year bills to stopgap funding legislation for the rest of the government. They’re also discussing possibly rehiring federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown, as well as reining in the president’s ability to unilaterally claw back some congressionally approved funding. Neither of the latter two is settled or even guaranteed to make it into legislative text.

Senators appear nowhere close to resolving Democrats’ key concern: guaranteeing an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans are offering a Senate vote on the matter after the government reopens, but with no guarantee of House or presidential action.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said it was “insane” that top congressional leaders and Trump have refused to speak directly for weeks to make a deal.

“I appreciate when our colleagues get together and talk. I’ve been part of a lot of rank and file negotiations. But that doesn’t seem to be a path right now,” he said.

“They refuse to engage,” Murphy added later. “It’s killing the country.”

Murphy is part of a group of Senate progressives rankling Democratic negotiators, who view him and other senators as privately pushing for the caucus to dig in on health care without a realistic path toward a deal.

But the desire for health care concessions among Democrats runs deep, even as Republicans insist the government has to be reopened before any negotiations on the issue take place.

“I need something on health care,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said leaving the Capitol Friday evening.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered what he cast as a compromise proposal Friday, saying Democrats would provide the votes to reopen the government if Republicans agreed to attach a one-year extension of the ACA subsidies. Thune quickly dismissed it as a “nonstarter,” as did virtually his entire conference.

Republicans have held private discussions about the ACA subsidies, both with Democrats and with each other. Emerging from a closed-door conference meeting Friday, several GOP senators vowed the party would produce its own health care proposal once the government reopens. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), however, said it would take a while because they still need to get Senate Republicans, House Republicans and the ultimate wild card, Trump, on the same page.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) took to the Senate floor Friday evening to float a new proposal to address the expiring subsidies — creating new savings accounts to help people buy insurance. Cassidy has been involved behind the scenes in bipartisan discussions on health care, but those talks were put on ice weeks ago as it became clear Republicans would not cut a deal with the government closed.

Some Republicans, and even some Democrats, ended the day hoping that Schumer’s offer — and its quick rejection — could herald a thaw in the frozen talks. On-the-fence Democrats, the thinking goes, will now realize that bringing the long-running rank-and-file negotiations to fruition is the only path out of the morass.

“I think the Republicans made it very clear today that they were not going to support Senator Schumer’s offer,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Friday night. “We need to find another path forward.”