These 6 House Democrats voted for bill to end government shutdown

The funding package that ended the longest government shutdown in modern U.S. history picked up support from a half-dozen Democrats — mostly moderates who represent competitive districts — when it passed the House late Wednesday.

The bill, which President Trump signed into law on Wednesday, will keep the government open until Jan. 30. It also reverses federal layoffs during the shutdown, and includes three-year-long funding bills that cover military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs; the Department of Agriculture and FDA; and operations for the legislative branch.

It passed the Senate earlier this week after negotiations between Republicans and eight members of the chamber’s Democratic caucus, who voted for the bill in exchange for a promise by the GOP to hold a separate vote on extending expiring health insurance tax credits.

Here’s a look at the House Democrats who voted yes:

Jared Golden of Maine

Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a moderate representing the largely rural northernmost reaches of New England, was the sole House Democrat to vote in favor of a GOP-backed measure in September that would have averted the government shutdown. When the shutdown began last month, he blamed it on “hardball politics” by “far-left groups.”

In a social media post after Wednesday’s vote, he said he “voted to reopen the government, pay federal workers, and get food assistance and other critical programs up and running again.”

He also urged lawmakers to “take immediate action” to extend the health insurance subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

“We still have a window to pass bipartisan legislation to extend these credits,” he said.

Golden won reelection last year by 0.6 percentage points, or just under 3,000 votes. In the same year, Mr. Trump won in Golden’s district by about 9 points. He said last week he will not run for reelection next year, a move he linked in part to the “unnecessary, harmful” shutdown.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, who is known for occasionally breaking with her party, said in a statement she “voted to end this partisan car crash of a shutdown.”

“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 wrote. “The last several weeks have been a case study in why most Americans can’t stand Congress. None of my friends who rely on SNAP would want to trade their dinner for an ambiguous D.C. beltway ‘messaging victory’ and I’m glad this ugly scene is in the rearview mirror.”

She won reelection by 3.8 points last year, after initially getting elected to Congress by an 0.8-point margin in 2022.

Henry Cuellar of Texas

Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, who has represented the Rio Grande Valley for over 20 years, said in a statement that “Washington’s inaction created unnecessary hardship for the communities I represent,” pointing to disruptions to food aid. He pressed Congress to extend the health insurance tax credits next.

“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,” Cuellar told NewsNation after the vote.

He won reelection by 5.6 points last year.

Adam Gray of California

Rep. Adam Gray of California explained his vote in an op-ed in the Turlock Journal, a newspaper in his Central Valley congressional district. He said he voted yes because the bill will keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funded until the end of September — preventing any more interruptions to food aid if there’s another shutdown.

“No parent should have to choose between feeding their children and keeping the lights on because someone in Washington thinks chaos is a negotiating tactic,” he wrote, blaming the Trump administration for “using vulnerable Americans as political leverage.”

He later said, “Is this a perfect deal? No. But lasting policy in this country is not born of hostage‑taking. It is born of compromise.”

He pressed for an extension to health insurance tax credits, but wrote: “Protecting families from hunger today does not prevent us from lowering health care costs tomorrow.”

Gray won his first term in Congress by just 187 votes in 2024, after losing by a razor-thin 564 votes two years earlier.

Don Davis of North Carolina

Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina, whose already-competitive district was redrawn this year and made more favorable to Republicans, said an “increasing number of families have shared with me that they have been suffering daily” over the course of the shutdown.

He said in a statement he voted for the bill to “alleviate the suffering,” and in the hopes that negotiations can take place on extending the health insurance subsidies.

“While some Washington politicians from both parties have failed rural communities, the battle for healthcare is not over,” Davis wrote.

Davis won reelection by 1.7 points last year.

Tom Suozzi of New York

Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York said on X after the House vote he’s “relying on the representations of some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that they want to get something done to extend the Premium Tax Credits.”

But he added that “we cannot rely on the White House, which has chosen to make this process needlessly painful,” noting the interruptions to food aid. 

Suozzi won reelection by 3.6 points in November. He previously represented his Long Island district for  three terms, left Congress in 2023 to run for governor, and returned to the House in an early 2024 special election to replace the expelled GOP Rep. George Santos.