Washington — Seven Democratic senators and one independent senator who caucuses with Democrats have voted to reopen the government. Three of them have consistently voted for Republicans’ short-term funding patch — which passed the House in mid-September — to keep the government funded until Nov. 21 at current levels. An amended measure narrowly advanced in the Senate late Sunday after it secured the support of five more Democrats.After more than a dozen votes on the bill with no progress in flipping the remaining handful of Democrats needed to advance the proposal, a bipartisan group of senators reached a deal in recent days that would guarantee a vote on expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits. A majority of Democrats opposed the deal because they felt a vote on the health care subsidies would be unlikely to pass in the GOP-led Senate and instead wanted something more concrete from Republicans.The deal also includes three full-year appropriations bills and would extend funding for the remaining parts of the government until Jan. 30. The deal also will reverse layoffs made during the shutdown and prevents any cuts until the end of January. Here are the Democrats who have voted to end the shutdown: John Fetterman of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has blamed his party for shutting down the government, has voted for the House-passed continuing resolution and the Senate’s amended version since the upper chamber’s first vote on Sept. 19, when he was the sole Democrat to vote in favor. He missed two votes on the House-passed measure in October, but otherwise has consistently voted in favor of the Republican plan and later the bipartisan deal reached in the Senate. Fetterman is up for reelection in 2028.Catherine Cortez Masto of NevadaSen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada defected from her party in the second vote on the House-passed measure on Sept. 30, one day before the government shut down. She has voted to reopen the government in every vote since then, explaining that a shutdown harms her constituents and hands “even more power to this reckless administration.” In a statement Sunday after voting to advance the latest path forward, Cortez Masto called for an extension to the expiring Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits, but said “that can’t come at the expense of the millions of Americans across our country impacted by a shutdown.” Cortez Masto is up for reelection in 2028. Angus King of Maine Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also split with the Democratic Party in the second vote and has voted to reopen the government in every vote since then. King, who helped negotiate the Senate’s amended version, which guarantees a vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies, called the deal “a win for the American people.” “The odds are that we have a better chance of doing something about the ACA, than we did not, going into this. At some point you have to decide, what is the best strategic step forward? And we believe that the evidence is that what we were doing wasn’t working, and therefore let’s try something else,” he said Sunday night.King is not for up for reelection until 2030.Dick Durbin of Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is not running for reelection in 2026, was the only member of Senate Democratic leadership to vote on Sunday to advance the amended bill to end the shutdown. Durbin said the measure “is not perfect, but it takes important steps” to reduce the pain inflicted on those affected by the shutdown. Durbin cited funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as SNAP or food stamps, and the reversal of the Trump administration’s mass firings ordered during the shutdown. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who helped broker the bipartisan agreement, voted Sunday to advance the deal. “At a time when families desperately need relief, Washington’s dysfunction is making life harder for families, and the last 39 days are proof. A record-long government shutdown paired with record-high health insurance cost increases is not the kind of history that the American people want Congress to make,” she told reporters. Hassan said she’s heard from constituents “who can’t afford a doubling of their health insurance costs” and others “about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused.” Hassan is not up for reelection until 2030. Tim Kaine of VirginiaSen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who represents a large share of federal workers, also supported the bipartisan deal, which includes a provision to reverse government layoffs implemented by the Trump administration during the shutdown. On Sunday, Kaine told reporters he joined negotiations “48 hours ago.” “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, as required by a law I got passed in 2019,” he said in a statement Sunday. Kaine is not up for reelection until 2030. Jackie Rosen of Nevada Sen. Jackie Rosen of Nevada said in a statement Sunday that she was convinced to support the amended measure because “President Trump and Washington Republicans are weaponizing their power in alarming ways to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on working people.” “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,” she said. “The concession we’ve been able to extract to get closer to extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits is a vote on a bill drafted and negotiated by Senate Democrats. Let me be clear: I will keep fighting like hell to ensure we force Republicans to get this done.” Rosen is not up for reelection until 2030.Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who is retiring next year and helped negotiate the framework to end the shutdown, said Sunday “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 that tens of millions of Americans rely on to keep costs down,” she said.
