NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
House Republicans in battleground districts appear to be closing ranks as GOP leaders deepen their government shutdown strategy, while the budget impasse shows no signs of abating.
Eight Republican House lawmakers whose seats are targeted by Democrats in 2026 spoke with Fox News Digital this week. And while some shared individual concerns, they largely agreed with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that Republicans should not renegotiate their federal funding proposal — and were confident that Americans supported them.
“The more people understand the math in the Senate, the more I would say the Republicans are winning,” said Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., who beat a moderate Democrat for his seat last year.
Rep. Jen Kiggans, Republican of Virginia, who also flipped her seat from blue to red, argued that the 2024 election results show that Americans “can see through many of the games that Democrats have been playing.”
JOHNSON INCREASES BET ON SCHUMER AS GOVERNMENT STOPS BARRELS IN WEEK 3
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Rep. Lisa McClain and Rep. Steve Scalise, from left, during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 16, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We had to respond to the demands of American voters, and Democrats are still in disarray,” she said.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Republican of Wisconsin, said: “It’s a simple math problem. And the Democratic Party has vastly underestimated the American public’s ability to understand mathematics. »
For a House GOP conference that has been plagued by historic levels of division in recent history — particularly on the issue of government funding — it showed a notable show of unity amid the shutdown, with a few exceptions.
The shutdown is set to continue next week after most Senate Democrats voted to block the GOP bill for the tenth time.
Republicans last month proposed a seven-week extension of FY 2025 funding levels, called a continuing resolution (CR), aimed at giving congressional negotiators more time to reach a long-term deal for FY 2026.
But House and Senate Democrats were furious at being left out of those talks. The majority of Democrats refuse to accept any deal that doesn’t include serious concessions on health care, at least extending COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year.
Several vulnerable Republicans who spoke to Fox News Digital emphasized that they also favor extending the Obamacare subsidies. Indeed, a majority of them support a bipartisan bill to extend them for another year, led by Kiggans.
“I think we would actually prefer to have … a longer term than a year,” said Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa.
But Mackenzie also pointed out that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has criticized the year-old bill, adding, “He’s already said ‘Absolutely not,’ so I don’t even know what their position is and what they’re asking for.”
Jeffries walked back those comments a day later, telling reporters that Democrats were willing to consider any offer in good faith.
Rep. Jen Kiggans speaks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 14, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Kiggans told Fox News Digital: “I care about this issue, certainly, you know, I had introduced this [Affordable Care Act] extension of tax reductions on premiums.
She added that Obamacare, officially called the ACA, and reopening the government are “two different issues, though” that should be discussed separately.
House Republicans who spoke to Fox News Digital, while largely supportive of discussions on Obamacare reforms and subsidy expansions, were united in refusing to accept Democrats’ demands to return to the negotiating table on federal funding. All argued, in one way or another, that the House had done its job in passing the CR on September 19.
“We have a clean CR that would fund all programs – all federal employees, keep everything operational through November 21, so we can finalize appropriations for fiscal year 2026 and address issues like health care. But you don’t do it at gunpoint,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
Lawler is one of three House Republicans to win in a district that President Donald Trump lost in 2024.
Screaming match breaks out between HAKEEM JEFFRIES and MIKE LAWLER AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CHAOS CONTINUES
“I think what the Democrats are doing here is creating a mess for the American people. And they’re not actually solving any of the problems,” he said.
Mackenzie said: “This was a seven-week rolling resolution so that we could have time to have policy discussions on other issues that needed to be concluded by the end of the year. And we were on track to do so. And I think [Democrats] completely blew up this process.
“This is an unprecedented thing that Senate Democrats are doing, trying to add policy programs into the new funding continuity bill,” Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., the Garden State’s most vulnerable Republican, also said.
Lawler and Rep. Dave Valadao, R-Calif., warned that abandoning a policy-free spending bill in favor of inserting partisan demands would create an unachievable new standard.
Rep. Mike Lawler leaves the Capitol Hill Club after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in Washington, March 4, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
“Retaining a government position is never a good strategy. And if it becomes an effective means of negotiation… it will set a bad precedent for governing in the future,” Valadao said. “So it’s absolutely prohibited, it should never be successful.”
Lawler said: “The reality is the moment you start giving in on a clean RC and giving in to demands, it will continue in perpetuity. Every time there is a lack of government funding, you will have a group of people demanding something, and it will turn into a fiasco.
Several battleground Republicans also congratulated Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., in the process.
Valadao told Fox News Digital, “I think they’re doing a good job. At least all the calls I’ve gotten, the conversations I’ve had with my colleagues and, again, with the people in the district, they all seem pretty confident that we’re doing the right thing.”
Lawler said Johnson had “handled the situation well,” while Bresnahan said, “I would say at least with the membership, they’re having, you know, very fluid conversations. We have daily or at least bi-weekly calls here to find out what the messages should be and what the conversations are.”
HOUSE ADOPTS TRUMP-SUPPORTED PLAN TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
But there has been dissension within the House Republican Party as the shutdown drags on.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., criticized House Republican leaders for not announcing a plan to extend Obamacare subsidies.
And Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., publicly criticized Johnson’s decision to keep the House out of session while the Senate considers the CR.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable to me and I think it just reinforces the distrust,” Kiley told MSNBC on Wednesday.
Notably, not all House Republicans who spoke to Fox News Digital directly supported Johnson’s decision — but none explicitly condemned it either, and most blamed Senate Democrats for the delay.
“I’m a little torn about it, because coming back and just being a part of the gimmicks that you see happening right now is not helpful,” Valadao said. “The problem is holding the government hostage.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Kiggans, who said she is pushing for the House to vote on a standalone bill to pay both active-duty military personnel and military civilians, said, “I think we all want to get back to work. We know we have work to do, but the ball is in the court of Senate Democrats and Chuck Schumer.”
However, others have more directly supported the move.
Kean told Fox News Digital that his staff is still busy in Washington DC and New Jersey trying to help voters deal with the shutdown and other issues.
“If we have the opportunity to come back to our district, it’s always important that we listen to our constituents and hear their concerns,” Kean said. “For now, I support this decision 100%.”
Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, said it was “the right decision.”
“We should be with our district. I’m keeping all my district offices open even though no one is getting paid,” Nunn said. “Coming back and having a theatrical debate is less effective than having a real conversation about how to reopen the government.”
