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Democrats struggle to find a consistent messaging strategy during government shutdown

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The government shutdown is about to enter a third week, and Democrats still appear to be struggling to find a coherent messaging strategy.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., received a barrage of GOP-led attacks Thursday after telling Punchbowl News, “Every day gets better for us” in reference to the extended shutdown.

Meanwhile, the House Democratic caucus’ selfie, taken Sept. 29, just before the shutdown, drew criticism from both sides of the aisle. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who has become a fierce critic of the GOP since leaving office, wrote on Honestly, Democrats were great at social media, but social media has abandoned them. The kitschy, goofy “pick your fighter” stuff needs to stop.

Democrats are fighting to center the debate on health care and their argument that any deal to reopen the federal government must at least include an extension of the COVID-19 pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

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Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer speak to the media

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks to the media next to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the day U.S. President Donald Trump meets with top congressional leaders from both parties at the White House in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

And while polls show Americans overwhelmingly favor extending subsidies, surveys on the government shutdown have been more mixed, with significant numbers of Americans placing blame on both parties.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday showed that 67% of Americans think Republicans deserve “a lot or a lot of the blame” for the shutdown, compared to 63% of Democrats.

A New York Times/Siena Poll Taken on the eve of the shutdown showed that Democrats had a similarly slim edge over the Republican Party in fighting the shutdown, but that 65 percent of people didn’t think Democrats should shut down the government if their demands weren’t met.

“Democrats continue to pick the wrong fights, including the shutdown. At best, the shutdown will give them a political draw where the public blames both parties,” Julian Epstein, a former member of the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital.

“But they’re not going to be a game-changer in this conflict, and the risk for them is that the longer this goes on, the public will see that it’s the Democrats who are narcissistically voting to shut down the government after losing the election.”

During an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher” earlier this month, CNN political commentator and former Obama administration appointee Van Jones said Democrats are “doing the wrong thing at the wrong time for the right reason.”

Jones said he favored expanding Obamacare subsidies, but argued that it might have been folly for his party to launch this battle over the shutdown before people were even warned about the potential increase in their premiums.

“I get it, the base is upset… ‘Please do something, do anything,’ but ‘something’ probably shouldn’t start a a group of unemployed people within the federal government and destroying the ability of the U.S. government to function just before the suffering was about to begin,” he said.

Van Jones speaks at an event

Political commentator Van Jones said Democrats are “doing the wrong thing at the wrong time for the right reason.” (Paul Marotta/Getty Images)

And it’s not yet clear whether Democrats have yet agreed to a road map for how to handle the shutdown.

Late last week, just before Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that the House would be out of session for another week while the Republicans’ funding bill stalled in the Senate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., unequivocally told Fox News Digital that “yes,” he would call all House Democrats back to Washington to establish a contrast between the two sides.

However, he backed down somewhat on this point on Monday. When asked by Fox News Digital if he would still call the entire caucus back, Jeffries responded: “We have a caucus meeting at 6 p.m. today. We will have a leadership meeting of the House Democratic caucus, that is, full leadership, tomorrow.

What he didn’t specify, however, was that the 6 p.m. caucus meeting was virtual.

At another news conference this week, Jeffries called a compromise bill to extend Obamacare subsidies for another year “laughable,” despite having the support of 11 members of his own Democratic caucus.

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He echoed those comments, saying, “If something comes before us, of course the caucus will consider it in good faith. »

But Republicans have also received their share of public criticism for their shutdown messages.

President Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric on federal employee layoffs put congressional Republicans in a difficult position earlier this month, although Trump has since softened his language and has yet to make those layoffs.

The White House’s depiction of Jeffries in a sombrero on multiple occasions has also been called racist by critics.

Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and founder of campaign consulting firm Authentic, said Democrats are doing the right thing by focusing on health care while criticizing Republicans’ messaging.

“I think focusing on health care subsidies, which are undeniably popular, was a really smart thing for Democrats to do,” Nellis told Fox News Digital.

“I think the Republicans have played right into their worst tendencies on this, which is a lot of their messaging is aggressively web-focused. The sombrero stuff is mildly funny. But then they went all-in, and they don’t have a good answer to health care subsidies.”

President Mike Johnson, Majority Leader John Thune and Vice President JD Vance speak to reporters after talks at the White House

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters at the White House with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Vice President JD Vance behind him during negotiations with President Trump and congressional leaders in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Nellis also argued that Republicans’ touting of a “landslide” election victory gave them more responsibility.

“When you create the conditions where you talk about the mandate that you have and the government shuts down on your watch, you are responsible for shutting down the government,” he said.

Still, he said he would give Democrats a “B, B minus” grade on their messages, adding that it was “not perfect.”

“Maybe the answer is…that it’s the Republicans who are losing the fight against the lockdown, rather than the Democrats who are winning it,” Nellis said. “But I mean, I just think we have a lot more right than a lot more wrong, and that’s the first time we’ve been able to say that in a while.”

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