{"id":406,"date":"2026-06-12T12:38:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:38:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:38:56","slug":"how-senate-democrats-got-their-mojo-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=406","title":{"rendered":"How Senate Democrats Got Their Mojo Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senate Democrats faced intense intraparty backlash last year after they worked with Republicans to fund the government without extracting concessions, such as an extension of lapsed federal health insurance subsidies.<\/p>\n

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Those tactics unleashed a wave of anger directed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and centrist members of his caucus, which has continued to reverberate in messy and contested Democratic Senate primaries across the country.<\/p>\n

But now, many on the left are giving Senate Democrats credit for uniting over the past six months against congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Democrats have stood firm against giving tens of billions in new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, two agencies on the frontline of Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown. They have also threatened to shut down a key intelligence gathering tool over Trump\u2019s decision to tap Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to lead the nation\u2019s intelligence agencies. And they\u2019ve held fast against providing funding for Trump\u2019s war against Iran and have forced repeated votes in the Senate to end hostilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little harder to make the argument that we\u2019re feckless,\u201d Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrats\u2019 chief deputy whip, said in an interview with NOTUS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve found more of their spine,\u201d added Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), a prominent progressive and potential 2028 presidential contender who has called for Schumer\u2019s ouster as leader.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), another top progressive who has been critical of Democrats\u2019 strategy, agreed, telling NOTUS that \u201cby and large, Democrats have done a good job in standing up to this unconstitutional activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight over a $70 billion immigration enforcement package that passed the Senate on a Republican-only vote last week is the most recent example of how Democrats are winning \u2014 even as they lose votes.<\/p>\n

Democrats forced Republicans to spend months getting on the immigration legislation, tying up the floor in the process. They made it even harder by highlighting Trump\u2019s demands for a White House ballroom and his push to compensate his allies who believe they\u2019ve been \u201cvictimized\u201d by the federal government.<\/p>\n

A number of vulnerable Republican incumbents on the ballot in November \u2014 including Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Jon Husted of Ohio, and Ashley Moody of Florida \u2014 felt pressure. They wound up voting for some Democratic amendments that would have shuttered or curtailed the fund, a sign of the party\u2019s anxiety about what critics have dubbed a \u201cpolitical slush fund\u201d for Trump allies.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said his party\u2019s refusal to ban the \u201cvictimization\u201d fund in law would hurt its chances of holding the Senate in November. Tillis is retiring at the end of this Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, last week\u2019s vote was a net loss for in-cycle members,\u201d Tillis wrote in a fiery email <\/u><\/span>to his colleagues on Monday. \u201cI am not diminishing the importance of funding DHS, but the \u2018gain\u2019 from that will not offset the \u2018pain\u2019 we\u2019ve created in key races.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Cornyn, another departing Republican senator from Texas, also said he was very worried about keeping the Senate, blaming in part Trump\u2019s inability to focus on kitchen table issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019m seeing, a lot of races that shouldn\u2019t be in play, are in play, and you know, Texas is one example of that,\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Top Democrats, meanwhile, said they hoped that their handling of the fight over ICE funding would help reverse the deeply negative views<\/u><\/span> many Democratic voters hold about their elected officials and pave the way for a blue wave in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the standard is, did you stop Donald Trump? That\u2019s a little much to ask, given that they control all the levers of the government,\u201d said Schatz. \u201cBut we\u2019re well-positioned going forward, and we\u2019ve notched a few small but meaningful wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), a progressive who has criticised party leaders, agreed saying, \u201cthe DHS fight was an important one, because people saw us have a backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats are extending their partisan approach to the fiscal 2027 spending bills, now being drafted in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Republicans were forced to cancel multiple markups of the annual bills over the past few weeks after failing to reach a top-line spending agreement. Democrats say they won\u2019t back Trump\u2019s push for new defense dollars to continue the war in Iran, a position popular with the party\u2019s progressive base. The dispute has some senators predicting another government shutdown later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cChuck\u2019s going to shut her down right before the election, because they think if they flip one or both [legislative] houses, they can get a better deal afterwards, which is probably true,\u201d Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) told NOTUS.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, immigrant advocates believe another test for Senate Democrats is coming soon on a bill that passed in the House last month with a wide bipartisan margin: the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. The measure would crack down on organized retail and supply chain theft, but critics are calling it a \u201ctrojan horse\u201d that would give the Trump administration new powers to surveil and crack down on immigrants. The bill has a number<\/u><\/span> of Senate Democratic sponsors, including Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t take the bait,\u201d warned Insha Rahman, the president of advocacy group Vera Institute of Justice, in an interview with NOTUS. \u201cDemocrats need to go on offense and have their own plan for immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahman said it\u2019s \u201cexactly the same\u201d situation Democrats faced after some of them voted for the Laken Riley Act early on in Trump\u2019s second term as president. That law mandated the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with certain crimes, but some Democrats have since walked back their support or said they regretted<\/u><\/span> voting for it.<\/p>\n

For now, however, Democrats are getting good marks from some of their most vocal progressive critics as well as calls for more action.<\/p>\n

Andrew O\u2019Neill, national advocacy director of Indivisible, a progressive organizing group, praised Democrats in a statement for opposing more immigration funding, saying they proved that \u201cpeople-powered organizing can make a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill added, \u201cThe next test for Democrats is if they\u2019ll actually hold these agencies accountable for their many abuses, and claw back every single cent from this slush fund for Trump\u2019s cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’s a little harder to make the argument that we\u2019re feckless,\u201d says Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senate"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Senate Democrats Got Their Mojo Back - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=406\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Senate Democrats Got Their Mojo Back - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIt's a little harder to make the argument that we\u2019re feckless,\u201d says Democratic Sen. 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