House Republicans show rare unity as shutdown drags into next week

House Republicans in battleground areas appear to be closing ranks as GOP leaders consider a government shutdown strategy, while the fiscal standoff shows no signs of slowing down.

Eight House GOP lawmakers who Democrats are targeting to seat in 2026 spoke with Fox News Digital this week. Although some shared individual concerns, they were largely united in agreeing with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, that Republicans should not renegotiate their federal funding proposal — and were confident that Americans were behind them.

“The more people understand the math inside the Senate, the less Republicans are winning,” said Rep. Rob Bresnahan, Republican of Pennsylvania, who defeated a moderate Democrat for his seat last year.

Rep. Jane Keegans, Republican of Virginia, who also flipped her seat from blue to red, said the 2024 election results show that Americans “can see a lot of the games Democrats have been playing.”

Johnson raises his stakes on Schumer as the government closes the barrels in the third week

“We have to work with the demands of American voters, and the Democrats are still a mess,” she said.

“It’s simple math,” said Rep. Derek Van Orden, Republican of Wisconsin. “The Democratic Party has dramatically underestimated the ability of the American public to understand math.”

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 has demonstrated a remarkable show of unity amid the shutdown, with few exceptions.

The shutdown is scheduled to begin next week after most Senate Democrats voted to block the GOP bill for the 10th time.

Republicans last month floated a seven-week extension of fiscal year 2025 funding levels, called continuing resolution (CR), aimed at giving congressional negotiators more time to reach a long-term agreement for fiscal year 2026.

But Democrats in the House and Senate were angry at being sidelined in those talks. The majority of Democrats refuse to accept any agreement that does not include serious concessions on health care, at least an extension of Obamacare subsidies dating back to the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

Several vulnerable Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital indicated they support extending Obamacare subsidies as well. In fact, a majority of them support a bipartisan bill to extend them for one year, led by Keegans.

“I think we would actually prefer … a period longer than one year,” said Rep. Ryan McKenzie, Republican of Pennsylvania.

But McKenzie also noted that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has been critical of the bill for one year, adding: “He’s already said ‘absolutely not,’ so I don’t even know what their position is and what they’re asking.”

Jeffries walked back those comments somewhat a day later, telling reporters that Democrats were willing to consider any good-faith offer.

Rep. Gene Keegans speaks to reporters during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, July 14, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I care about this issue, absolutely, you know, I’ve provided that,” Keegans told Fox News Digital [Affordable Care Act] Extending premium tax cuts.”

She added that Obamacare, officially known as the ACA, and reopening the government are “two different issues, though” that should be discussed separately.

House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital, though largely in favor of discussing Obamacare subsidy reforms and an extension, were united in refusing to heed Democrats’ demands to return to the negotiating table on federal funding. Everyone confirmed, in one way or another, that the House of Representatives had fulfilled its mission in passing the Republican resolution on September 19.

“We have a clean slate that will fund all the programs — all the federal employees, and keep everything running through November 21, so we can finish the fiscal year 2026 appropriations and address issues like health care. But you don’t do that under the barrel of a gun,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

Lawler is one of three House Republicans to win a district lost to President Donald Trump in 2024.

A shouting match broke out between Hakeem Jeffries and Mike Lawler as the government shutdown chaos continued

“I think what the Democrats are doing here is creating chaos for the American people. And they’re not actually solving any of the problems,” he said.

“It was a seven-week running decision so that we could have time to have policy discussions on other issues that needed to be concluded by the end of the year,” McKenzie said. “And we were on track to do that. I think [Democrats] “This operation completely blew up.”

“This is an unprecedented thing for Democrats to do in the Senate, where they are trying to add policy programs to a new continuity funding bill,” said Rep. Tom Kean, the most vulnerable Republican in the Garden State.

Both Lawler and Rep. Dave Valadao, R-Calif., warned that abandoning a free-spending bill in favor of introducing partisan demands would create an unworkable new standard.

Rep. Mike Lawler leaves the Capitol Hill Club following the House Republican Conference meeting in Washington, March 4, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)

“Holding a government position is not a good strategy at all. If it becomes a successful way to negotiate… it will set a bad precedent moving forward in governance,” Valadao said. “So this is a complete no-no and should never work.”

“The reality is that the moment you start giving in to a clean slate and you start giving in to demands, this is going to go on forever,” Lawler said. “Every time there’s a break in government funding, you’re going to have a group of people demanding something, and it’s going to turn into a fiasco.”

Many battleground Republicans also praised Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, in the process.

“I think they’re doing a good job,” Valadao told Fox News Digital. “At least, in all the calls I’ve made, the conversations I’ve had with my colleagues, and again with people in the area, they all seem very confident that we’re doing the right thing.”

Lawler said Johnson “handled it well,” while Bresnahan said: “I would say, at least with members, they’re, you know, having very smooth conversations. We have daily or at least bi-monthly calls here about what the messaging should be and what the conversations should be.”

House passes Trump-backed plan to avoid a government shutdown

But there was some opposition within the House GOP as the shutdown continued.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized House Republican leaders for not announcing a plan to extend support for Obamacare.

Rep. Kevin Kelly, Republican of California, publicly attacked Johnson’s decision to keep the House out of session while the Senate considers the Republican resolution.

“It’s completely unacceptable to me, and I think it will only create more distrust,” Kelly told MSNBC on Wednesday.

Notably, not all House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital directly supported Johnson’s move, but none of them explicitly condemned it either, and most blamed Senate Democrats for the filibuster.

“I’m upset about it, because going back and participating in the scams you see happening now is not helpful,” Valadao said. “Holding the government hostage is the problem here.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a press conference. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)

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“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,” said Keegans, who said she is pushing for a House vote on a standalone bill to pay active duty and civilian members of the military.

But others directly supported the move.

Kaine told Fox News Digital that his staff remains busy in D.C. and New Jersey trying to help voters navigate the shutdown and other issues.

“Any opportunity to return to our district, it is always important that we listen to constituents and hear their concerns,” Keane said. “Right now, I support the decision 100 percent.”

Rep. Zach Nunn, Republican of Iowa, said it was “the right move.”

“We have to be with our district. I will keep all my district offices open even though no one is getting paid,” Nunn said. “It’s less effective to go back and have a theatrical debate than to have a real conversation about how to get the government back open.”