Democrats confront limits of their minority power after bruising shutdown vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats were grim Friday as they left Washington after a brutal 10-week stretch that consistently showed the limits of their power in the minority — and culminated with a deeply personal rupture over how to best counter President Donald Trump.

“Everyone made hard decisions, right? Really hard decisions,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, of the position in which Democrats found themselves over the last week as they had to decide between voting for a Republican spending bill they hated and shutting down the government. “It’s like two horrible things, and you can’t imagine either one.”

Internal dissension burst into the open Thursday evening after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would vote to move forward on the Trump-backed spending measure, ensuring its eventual passage even though Democrats said it would give Trump broad discretion on decisions that are traditionally left to Congress.

The intraparty backlash was unusually swift as activists and House Democrats who had uniformly opposed the bill heaped criticism on Schumer. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Schumer’s New York colleague, joined other top party members in a statement saying, “We will not be complicit."

The heat on Schumer came after several other Democratic setbacks in the dizzying weeks since Trump’s inauguration, and as Republicans have only become more unified under the president’s second term.

Republicans confirmed Trump’s entire Cabinet swiftly and with little internal disagreement, denying Democrats the needed votes to block nominees they saw as extreme, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Democrats were also unable to stop a series of moves by Trump’s administration that would normally be left to Congress under the law, including mass firings across the government. Adding to their challenges, the outlook for future Senate elections grew even gloomier after Democrats in three swing states — the latest being Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire — announced their retirement.

The days leading up to Friday’s vote on government spending were particularly bleak after several hourslong meetings that became contentious. Senate Democrats repeatedly left the meetings stone-faced and refusing to talk with reporters. The angst was particularly acute among rank-and-file who have spent years messaging about the perils of shutdowns.

“It’s a momentous decision,” said Shaheen, one of nine Democrats who voted with Schumer to keep the government open.

The tension was unusually high after Senate Democrats had remained solidly unified through Trump’s first term and through most of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, when Democrats passed several major policy bills and held the Senate against perceived odds in the 2022 midterm elections.

Schumer’s move to support the spending legislation put him in the rare position of bucking his party’s base. He said that of two bad options, a partial government shutdown was worse because it would give Trump even more control to shut down agencies and there would be “no off-ramp” to get out of it. “I think people realize it’s a tough choice,” he said.

Reaction to Schumer’s decision was mixed. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who voted not to move forward on the spending measure, wouldn’t answer when asked by reporters if she still has confidence in the Democratic leader. But Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, who voted to move forward, said Schumer “is showing leadership” by taking a stand.

Schumer and Democrats in his caucus say they believe they will eventually gain more political ground as members of their party become more motivated, and as they continue to criticize Trump on what they predict will be the economic ramifications of his policies.

On Friday, as he walked into the Senate to vote, Schumer said Democrats will “resume pounding away at Donald Trump” and arguing that he’s hurting the middle class economically. “It’s brought down his numbers some, and we’re going to keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.”

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said that spending vote was a “tough political call,” but the party would continue to be unified on the economic message.

“All of our base wants us to fight, and I'm with them,” said Welch, who voted not to move forward on the spending measure. But he questioned whether the party ever had any leverage, as Trump was preparing to blame them if there was a shutdown.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Democrats need to “keep their eyes on the ball.”

“The stark reality is, we’re the minority in the House, we’re the minority in the Senate, and we don’t control the White House, so we need to use every tool as nimbly and ingeniously as we can,” Blumenthal said. “But most importantly, the growing anger.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., heads to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats on mounting a response to the Republican-led spending bill that already passed the House, Thursday, March 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer gives a television interview at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., center, is joined by House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., left, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., right, during a news conference at the Capitol, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., from left, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., talk as the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee meets to consider President Donald Trump's nominations for the director of the National Institutes of Health, and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., gives a television interview, as the Senate works to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.

The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

The hearing comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.

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The fight over California’s new congressional map designed to help Democrats flip congressional House seats will go to court Monday as a panel of federal judges considers whether the district boundaries approved by voters last month can be used in elections.

The hearing in Los Angeles sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Trump administration and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s been eyeing a 2028 presidential run. The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to grant a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19 — the date candidates can take the first official steps to run in the 2026 election.

Voters approved California’s new U.S. House map in November through Proposition 50. It’s designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. It was Newsom’s response to a Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump.

▶ Read more about California’s redistricting effort

Even though Republican Brian Jack is only a first-term congressman, he has become a regular in the Oval Office these days. As the top recruiter for his party’s House campaign team, the Georgia native is often reviewing polling and biographies of potential candidates with Trump.

Lauren Underwood, an Illinois congresswoman who does similar work for Democrats, has no such West Wing invitation. She is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue working the phones to identify and counsel candidates she hopes can erase Republicans’ slim House majority in November’s midterm elections.

Although they have little in common, both lawmakers were forged by the lessons of 2018, when Democrats flipped dozens of Republican-held seats to turn the rest of Trump’s first term into a political crucible. Underwood won her race that year, and Jack became responsible for dealing with the fallout when he became White House political director a few months later.

Underwood wants a repeat in 2026, and Jack is trying to stand in her way.

▶ Read more about Underwood and Jack

The Arizona Democrat is emerging as a crucial surrogate for a party desperately seeking to win back the Latino support that slipped in 2024 with the election of President Trump. His fall travels have included trips to New Jersey, Virginia and Florida, where he campaigned for Democrats who went on to win their elections. Strategists say Gallego is flexing his muscle as a rising star for the party while also laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run despite not being a household name like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It’s a role Gallego is expected to continue next year, when Democrats hope to break Republicans’ hold on Congress and counter Trump’s agenda.

“Ruben Gallego is going to be our not-so-secret, secret weapon,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and member of the Democratic National Committee.

Gallego is among the Democrats named as possible 2028 contenders who had the busiest travel calendar in 2025. He stumped for Democratic female candidates in New Jersey’s and Virginia’s gubernatorial races and Miami’s mayoral race.

▶ Read more about Gallego

Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.

“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he said in a social media post.

The American president told reporters at the White House that Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened” and stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops. Trump, in his post, said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

U.S. Central Command said three service members were also wounded in the ambush Saturday by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump said the three “seem to be doing pretty well.” The U.S. military said the gunman was killed in the attack. Syrian officials said the attack wounded members of Syria’s security forces as well.

▶ Read more about the attack

Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.

The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who was joined by the other two defendants in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judge’s law clerk, who was a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion.

Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.

▶ Read more about the hearing

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, after attending the Army-Navy game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Washington, en route to Baltimore to attend the Army-Navy football game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)