1/6/19
WASHINGTON — While President Donald Trump adjusts to life with a Democratic-led House, some Republican members of Congress are also wrestling with their own allegiances and political futures, finding ways to distance themselves from their party's president as a new era of divided government begins. Cracks in the GOP ranks have already emerged as skittish Republicans, many of whom face difficult elections in 2020, have begun asserting their independence. Their actions have ranged from siding with Democrats on efforts to reopen the government to writing a stinging op-ed about the president in just the first week of the new year. And with a host of Republicans facing re-election in blue or purple states or districts in 2020, Democrats plan to take advantage of the political dynamics to upset the GOP's agenda. A handful of House and Senate Republicans have already broken ranks with Trump and GOP leaders on the government shutdown by coming out in support of a Democratic proposal to re-open the government that does not include funding for the president's border wall — an early indication that some Republicans will have a challenging two years navigating a president who governs toward the base of the party. “You’re not just walking a tight rope, you’re eating, sleeping, and breathing on it,” said Matt Gorman who was the National Republican Campaign Committee communications director for the 2018 elections.
A total of eight House Republicans voted with all Democrats on measures that would have ended the government shutdown Thursday night. And two Senators have said that the Senate should take up the House-passed bills. The measures would fund six of the seven remaining appropriations bills that had previously gained overwhelming support in the Senate in the last Congress and a measure to extend Department of Homeland Security funding until February 8 to allow more time for party leaders to reach a compromise on the border wall funding. Neither of the bills included funding for the president’s demand for a border wall. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who might have the most difficult race in in 2020 in a state that is edging more Democratic each election, was the first Republican to say that Senate should vote on the House bills to reopen the government. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., another member up in 2020 who is looking for a solution to the stalemate, wrote an op-ed in The Hill floating the idea that agreement on a border wall could be coupled with relief for Dreamers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Collins has said that she’d support the House bills if Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell brings them to the floor, telling reporters she sees “no reason why the bills that are ready to go, on which we’ve achieved an agreement, should be held hostage to this debate over border security.”
