Democrats emboldened by election results mobilize against centrists' emerging shutdown deal [View all]

Source: CNN Politics

Updated Nov 5, 2025, 9:58 PM ET
PUBLISHED Nov 5, 2025, 5:26 PM ET


Hours before the first major elections since President Donald Trump’s win last November, Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a stern warning for Democrats about the party’s closed-door talks to end the shutdown.

Inside a tense, three-hour meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday, a fiery Sanders urged Democrats not to yield to Republicans without a real victory on health care. The Vermont independent was armed with fresh polling from a Democratic-aligned firm that showed voters would punish the party for giving up with nothing in return, according to a person familiar with his remarks.

By Wednesday morning, Sanders and his colleagues in Congress pointed to Democrats’ blow-out victories — including in Virginia, a state with thousands of furloughed federal workers — as the most powerful evidence yet they needed to keep fighting. “It would be very strange if on the heels of the American people rewarding Democrats for standing up and fighting, we surrendered without getting anything,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. “I think we are in an enormously strong position right now.”

During a private call of House Democrats on Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers, including senior Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, urged each other to call their centrist Senate colleagues directly to make the case against the emerging deal. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled on the call that he was keeping the pressure on his Senate counterpart, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Outside Democratic groups, too, have swiftly mobilized to ramp up pressure on centrists.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/democrats-shutdown-deal-elections