Liberal groups are throwing their money and followers into fortifying Democratic resolve in the lengthening shutdown fight, bolstering vulnerable incumbents who stand firm and preparing to pounce on any wayward senators who show signs of wavering on health care priorities.
Senate Democrats have so far remained remarkably aligned on their demands to extend health care subsidies for over 20 million Americans and reverse Medicaid cuts. But progressive leaders and many of their supporters are painfully aware of the party’s collapse in its last shutdown fight with President Donald Trump in March, when 10 Democratic senators backed down.
Democrats remained resolute Friday even as the White House said it would make good on its threat to fire thousands of federal workers. “The RIFs have begun,” White House Budget Director Russell Vought posted on social media, referring to reductions in force, the federal government’s term for layoffs.
This time, liberal advocates championing the fight say they are ready and on the lookout for any inkling of a Democratic defection. They’re armed with pre-made advertisements, campaign fundraising and networks of millions of people in every U.S. state ready to hit the streets and blow up senators’ phone lines.
“If a senator goes on CNN and says, ‘We need to meet Republicans where they are at and reopen the government before there are talks,’ then we go on offense,” Joe Jacobson of the Progress Action Fund said.
Jacobson’s group is planning a six-figure television ad buy in the Washington, DC market at the slightest sign any Senate Democrat is vacillating beyond the three Democratic-aligned members who have already voted for the GOP’s temporary funding bill. The prepared ads feature a generic Republican congressman thanking the wavering senator for being “weak and feckless” and “Making America Great Again.”
Jacobson said the group will also go on offense if Democrats “cave” for a mere promise of future discussions or a vote on a Democratic proposal later.
Republicans are trying to turn the progressive advocates’ work against Democrats, arguing that the opposition party is waging the shutdown fight to renew expiring Obamacare insurance subsidies to satisfy “far-left radicals.”
Republican senators emerged from a Tuesday meeting with a new message: Democrats are prolonging the shutdown to coincide with a previously planned anti-Trump rally in DC on Oct. 18. Democratic senators rejected the assertion. Though Indivisible, MoveOn and dozens of other groups helped to plan the rally, representatives of the groups say it is unrelated to the shutdown.
Only three Democratic-aligned senators have voted with Republicans for short-term funding to reopen the government without meeting the opposition party’s health care demands: Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Angus King of Maine, an independent who usually votes with Democrats.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries have insisted they will not support a short-term funding bill unless Republicans agree to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
“People are just devastated by how much health care will cost them,” Schumer told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday.
For now, many liberal groups are focusing on rewarding the party’s current solidarity.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is organizing targeted fundraising for vulnerable lawmakers supporting the shutdown, including Senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat. But Adam Green, the committee’s co-founder, said the group is ready to “throw down” funds for pressure ads and other actions if that solidarity weakens.
Green said that PCCC was instrumental in “shaming” Schumer after the March vote and forcing him to cancel a book tour for fear of protests.
Joel Payne, MoveOn’s chief communications officer, said the progressive group is ensuring Democrats “hear support and hear we’ve got their back.” MoveOn says it has millions of members across all states in the US.
Kristen Crowell, executive director of Fair Share America, which focuses on economic causes, said chapters are holding protests around the country showing support for Democrats’ demands to renew the Obamacare subsidies. National and local groups have held at least 67 shutdown-related events since Oct. 4, including protests in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky, according to a list shared by Fair Share.
“That is a very important component of our strategy: we want to make sure members in their home districts, with their own constituents, are hearing directly and pressured to stand on the side of the American public,” Crowell said.
Left-leaning groups including MoveOn, Indivisible, and Working Families Power set a goal of driving 500,000 supportive calls to Congress focused on the health care subsidies. So far, MoveOn has sent nearly one million texts to drive attention to the issue. A “progressive movement” call last week resulted in more than 80 events over the weekend across 27 states, Payne said.
Efforts are continuing to roll out. The Economic Security Project’s political arm is planning a week of actions timed around open enrollment for health insurance plans, which begins officially on Nov. 1, said Adam Ruben, director of Economic Security Project Action.
“Groups around the country will organize local actions to highlight the health care price spikes that will be hitting,” said Ruben, who added there are 15 co-sponsors for the week including groups focused on health care, progressive politics and anti-poverty initiatives. His group is simultaneously planning a six-figure digital campaign focused on stories of people hit by health insurance premium increases driven by the subsidies’ expiration.
Andrew O’Neill, national advocacy director with Indivisible, said liberal grassroots groups spent months preparing for this shutdown fight. Advocates were incensed when Schumer and other Senate Democrats retreated in the prior shutdown fight.
“There’s a lot of frustration with how things played out in March, and immediately us and many others started looking forward, saying, ‘We’ve got another deadline coming up in September – what are we going to do differently?” O’Neill said. “With that long runway, there was an opportunity to have the conversations that needed to be had, plan, program and all that stuff.”
By Emily Birnbaum and Erik Wasson
