Congressional Democrats, fresh off multiple election night victories, are demanding that Republicans meet them at the negotiating table to end the record-breaking government shutdown.
Democrats are seeking to build on the momentum from both last night’s wins and comments from President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning, in which he admitted that the elections were partially a rebuke of Republicans and that something needs to be done about the shutdown.
Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to the president on Wednesday morning demanding a bipartisan meeting with GOP congressional leaders and Trump on how to end the shutdown, which hit 36 days on Wednesday, breaking the record of the longest shutdown that was set during Trump’s first administration.
“We write to demand a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” the Democratic leaders wrote. “Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace.”
The letter comes after Trump met with Senate GOP lawmakers Wednesday morning for breakfast. The president told the senators he wanted to have a “discussion” about “what last night represented,” after Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races and New York City’s mayoral race. Democrats also performed well down-ballot in local elections, with counties that voted for Trump in 2024 voting blue this year and increasing Democratic majorities in state legislatures.
Trump blamed GOP losses on the shutdown, as the Senate continues to be unable to pass a clean short-term spending deal, and the House remains out of session.
“I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans, and that was a big factor,” he said. “And they say I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor. But I don’t know about that, but I was honored that they said that.”
Several exit polls found that voters’ dissatisfaction with the economy and Trump fueled their votes for Democrats on Tuesday. Though the shutdown is impacting the economy by halting paychecks to federal workers and government employees, disrupting air traffic, and freezing loans to small businesses, surveys from CBS News, CNN, and the Associated Press did not find that the government shutdown specifically was a primary concern for voters.
To Trump’s latter remark, Republicans historically also have struggled with turnout in non-presidential election years — particularly since Trump entered the political arena. But Democrats are attributing their victories to more than just turnout, arguing it’s a rebuke of Trump’s agenda and the GOP trifecta.
Both Trump’s admission and the 2025 results are likely to strengthen Democrats’ resolve in digging their heels in on the shutdown. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who has been adamant that Democrats remain strong as they demand negotiations on healthcare, said in a statement on Tuesday night that Democrats win “when we show the American people what we stand for and how we are willing to fight for it — as we have been for months.”
“Tonight’s election results are an unmistakable rejection of Donald Trump’s corruption and Republicans’ billionaire agenda,” Murphy continued. “But the results should also give Democrats confidence that the American people have our back as we engage in the fight to protect people’s health care and save our democracy.”
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It’s unclear whether the 2025 election results will sway House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to call the House back, which has been on recess since the chamber passed the GOP’s continuing resolution in September.
Johnson downplayed the implications of the 2025 elections on Wednesday during the daily GOP press conference. He said there were “no surprises” and all it was was “blue states and blue cities vot[ing] blue.”
“We all saw that coming, and no one should read too much into last night’s election results,” Johnson said. “Off-year elections are not indicative of what’s to come. That’s what history teaches us.”
He added: “The lesson is that common-sense Americans have to stay informed. You have to stay engaged, and you have to vote and let your voice be heard.”
Republicans have spent many a press conference leading up to the 2025 elections tying Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to the entire Democratic Party, stating that the self-proclaimed democratic socialist is the future of the party. Many in the GOP have also accused congressional Democrats of shutting down the government to cater to their “radical leftist base.”
“Now that the election charades are over, maybe Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries can get the political blessing of their new savior, Zohran Mamdani, to reopen the government, to pay our federal employees, to pay our troops and to allow struggling families on SNAP to receive the benefits that they’ve had for a long time,” Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) said at the presser.
But the CR is expiring on Nov. 21, with leaders in both parties acknowledging there will need to be a vote on a new spending deal before that deadline.
Johnson has been insistent that there is nothing he can negotiate on or “take out” of the CR, arguing it’s a clean deal that Democrats voted for in March and last December. But Democrats are demanding that Republicans work with them to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which expire at the end of this year.
Extending the tax credits has bipartisan support, though Republicans have largely said they want to see reforms. House leadership and fiscal hawks have little to no interest in extending the credits, with the conservative Freedom Caucus issuing a statement on Tuesday that it will not back a new CR that includes anything related to the ACA credits.
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The right-flank caucus is also opposed to a new CR in this calendar year, as negotiations are ongoing between GOP and Democratic senators on how to achieve a deal.
“Members of the Freedom Caucus support a Continuing Resolution as far into 2026 as possible … and it will block any further effort by Democrats and the Swamp to advance a budget-busting, pork-filled, lobbyist handout omnibus in November or December,” the Freedom Caucus said.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.