8 Democrats voted with Republicans on the closure deal. Here’s what they had to say about why

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic senators — eight in total — faced almost immediate backlash from members of their own party when they voted to let the Senate move forward with compromise legislation that would reopen the government.

Their decision Sunday night was called “betrayal” and “pathetic” by some of the most prominent voices in the Democratic Party.

Read more: A handful of Senate Democrats have joined with the GOP to break the funding gridlock, the first step toward ending the shutdown

“In my opinion, this was a very bad vote,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats.

The group of dissidents consists of a number of senators who will retire next year, in addition to a number of former governors. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana praised them Monday morning, saying they “decided to put principle over their personal policies.”

The group of moderate Democrats certainly knew the criticism that came when it broke with the rest of its party on the 40th day of the government shutdown. But after huddling for hours — often in the Senate basement — over the past week, every senator has come to the same conclusion: It’s time to end the government shutdown.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Shaheen, a senior Democrat retiring from the Senate, often took the lead in negotiating compromise legislation to end the shutdown. She has made it a priority to extend support for health plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, but has also expressed reservations about voting to shut down the government.

Ultimately, she agreed to a pledge from Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota to hold a vote in December on health benefits.

Watch live: The Senate meets as some Democrats prepare to join the GOP to end the government shutdown

“This was the only agreement on the table,” she said in a news conference following Sunday night’s vote. “It was our best opportunity to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits that tens of millions of Americans depend on to keep costs low.”

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois

Durbin is another senator retiring after a long career in the Senate. Durbin holds second place in the Democratic leadership and defected from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York after he said the shutdown caused too much pain to the American people.

In a statement before the vote, Durbin, who said Republicans still bear responsibility for the shutdown, said, “This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to limit the damage caused by the shutdown. Not only would it fully fund SNAP for next year, it would reverse the mass separations ordered by the Trump administration throughout the shutdown.”

Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia

Kaine, the former Virginia governor, was one of the last Democrats to join the group willing to vote for the bill. He said that, late Sunday evening, he was reviewing the legislation with his staff. For him, the deciding factor was language in the funding bill that bars President Donald Trump’s administration from carrying out more mass layoffs — an issue of particular importance to his state.

He described the agreement as a “cessation of harm” and said that he was only able to reach the agreement when the negotiations reached a critical juncture.

Read more: Are Democrats or Republicans responsible for the impending government shutdown? Here’s what our survey found

“The types of non-strategic mass firings and (reduction in force actions) that have traumatized federal employees since Inauguration Day are just not something they can do anymore,” Keane said.

Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

Hassan, a former governor, was involved in the negotiations from the beginning and emphasized that threats to federal food aid made the situation more urgent.

Hassan said she “heard from families about the deep pain caused by the government shutdown, which was exacerbated by a president who illegally and repeatedly chose to cut off aid to families just trying to buy groceries.”

“After weeks of bipartisan talks, I voted today to reopen the government so we can get back to work helping Granite Staters,” she said Sunday.

The state funding bill replenishes funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as ensuring that states that spent their own money to keep it running during the shutdown are reimbursed.

Senator Angus of Maine

King is an independent who caucuses with the Democratic Party and is a former governor. He has been voting from the beginning to reopen the government, but he has also played a key role in negotiations, including often hosting senators for talks in his office in the Capitol basement.

Read more: Even after the government shutdown ends, flight cancellations in the United States are expected to continue

He has consistently said he opposes using a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, but he also wanted Congress to extend health care subsidies. After Republicans rejected a proposal from Schumer to extend the ACA tax credits for one year, King said that showed the shutdown was not working.

“The question was: Does the shutdown advance the goal of achieving some of the support needed to extend the tax credits? Our judgment was that it would not lead to that outcome,” King said.

Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada

Rosen grew increasingly angry as the shutdown continued and Republicans refused to give in to Democrats’ demands over ACA loans. With air travel increasingly affected by the shutdown, the economy of her home state of Nevada, a political swing state, was also under threat.

Trump and his fellow Republicans are “weaponizing their power in troubling ways to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on working people, such as withholding entire SNAP benefits and destroying our tourism industry by shutting down air travel,” Rosen said in a statement.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

Cortez Masto is another Democrat voting to reopen the government. She also emphasized that the impact of travel was particularly detrimental to Nevada and that the impacts on food assistance programs provided a new sense of urgency. She said the lines at food banks were the longest she had seen since the coronavirus pandemic.

He watches: The longest shutdown on record disrupts air travel and food aid for Americans

“The stories were horrific,” she said.

Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

Fetterman, who was elected in 2022, was also voting to reopen the government, breaking with his party as he does on many other issues. He criticized Democrats for using the shutdown to demand concessions on health care.

“I am sorry to our military, SNAP recipients, government employees, and Capitol Police who have not received their paychecks for weeks,” he said on social media. “It shouldn’t have come to this. This was a failure.”