Centrist Democrats cautioned against a growing antipathy toward compromise in Congress, after they bucked their party to back a GOP deal ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), Adam Gray (D-CA), Don Davis (D-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Jared Golden (D-ME) gained attention on Wednesday when they crossed the aisle to end the gridlock in Washington, D.C., six weeks after the shutdown began, triggering repercussions that reverberated nationwide.
In reaction to the shutdown, which began due to deep disagreements between Republicans and Democrats about attaching Obamacare subsidies to a measure to keep the government open, those lawmakers, and other centrist Democrats, expressed concern that a “truly deliberative democracy” is declining.
Perez issued a statement on Tuesday, calling for Congress to put the public over party.
“The last several weeks have been a case study in why most Americans can’t stand Congress,” she warned.
She urged both parties to work together in good faith to negotiate a better way of life for citizens.
“Americans can’t afford for their Representatives to get so caught up in landing a partisan win that they abandon their obligation to come together to solve the urgent problems that our nation faces,” she said. “I’ll work with whoever is necessary to reach those goals — and I don’t give a damn which side of the aisle they sit on.”
Cuellar issued a similar statement.
“The problem is, when Democrats or Republicans think they’re winning at the end of a long shutdown, it’s the American public that loses,” he told NewsNation.
Gray agreed, writing in an op-ed for the Turlock Journal, “Lasting policy in this country is not born of hostage‑taking. It is born of compromise.”
Most of the House Democrats who pushed the continuing resolution across the finish line in a vote on Wednesday evening represent swing districts and are up for reelection in 2026.
They have pushed colleagues on both sides of the aisle to demonstrate “courage” in bipartisanship, contrasting those who have cast compromise with the other side as a weakness or “caving in” to the opposition.
“We need to demonstrate the courage to practice the version of politics most of us wish was the norm: Two sides acknowledging there’s a problem, and sitting down to find a workable solution,” Golden wrote in a September Substack post, urging Republicans and Democrats to negotiate a deal to avert the shutdown.
Golden’s words come as calls within his party have grown louder to oust Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who they believe has been too willing to work with Republicans. Senate candidates, such as Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico, argued it was because Schumer “folded” that a key number of centrist Senate Democrats advanced the continuing resolution in the upper chamber this week after weeks of deadlock, allowing it to be sent to the House for a final vote.
If Schumer were an “effective leader, he would have united his caucus to vote ‘No’ tonight and hold the line on healthcare,” Moulton said in a post on X.
“This moment demands fighters, not folders,” Talarico added.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) disagreed. He was one of the eight Democratic-aligned lawmakers who backed the GOP’s continuing resolution.
FETTERMAN ON SHUTDOWN: ‘THIS WAS A FAILURE’
Extending Obamacare subsidies must happen, but will require Democrats “to negotiate with the Republicans,” Fetterman said during a CBS interview earlier this week, “because America decided to put us in the minority.”
“That’s the essence of democracy, to find a way forward because our parties have different priorities, and that’s why I’ve always refused to put our government in the middle of all of it, because millions and millions of American lives will be impacted that way,” he added. “Two things must be true: that I want to make healthcare more affordable for Obamacare, but also that our government should never be held as a hostage, whether it’s a Republican or whether it’s a Democrat.”