A California Democrat broke with social gathering to finish authorities shutdown. His vote tells a broader story.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Grey was one in all solely six Home Democrats — and the one one from California — who voted with Republicans in favor of a deal to finish the federal government shutdown, and there was a calculated cause behind that call.

Grey, a first-term Democrat from the Central Valley, is operating for reelection in a majority Latino district that nationwide Republicans are anticipated to closely goal as they defend their slim Home majority in subsequent fall’s midterm elections. Final 12 months, Grey received his seat by 187 votes, and though redistricting has since made the thirteenth District extra favorable to Democrats, it stays extremely aggressive.

The Merced Democrat’s vote displays the political actuality of representing one of many nation’s few battleground districts. Grey is positioning himself as an independent-minded Democrat keen to buck management on politically divisive points. The shutdown deal gave him a uncommon alternative to place that in apply, even on the danger of irritating members of his personal social gathering.

“I do know it’s not snug, and I do know there’s individuals which are going to be mad at me,” Grey informed The Occasions. “However I’m not right here to win an argument. I’m right here to really assist repair issues with individuals in my group, and I do know I did the best factor.”

Democratic representatives and senators for weeks had been steadfast in opposing a shutdown deal that didn’t embody language to increase Obamacare tax credit which are set to run out on the finish of the 12 months, and consequently, depart tens of millions of Individuals with larger healthcare prices.

In Grey’s district, greater than half of residents depend on Medi-Cal or have protection via the Reasonably priced Care Act market, making them weak to rising healthcare prices — a pocketbook challenge that’s prone to issue into an already aggressive congressional race.

Past healthcare, almost 48,000 households in his largely rural district depend on meals advantages via the Supplemental Diet Help Program, often called SNAP, in line with the newest knowledge offered by the Division of Agriculture. These advantages had been put in danger throughout the shutdown as funding for the federal program generally known as meals stamps was caught up in authorized disputes.

Because the shutdown dragged on with out significant negotiations on healthcare, Grey mentioned, he grew involved that Republicans had been too snug “utilizing weak Individuals as political leverage.”

In the end, Grey was amongst simply 13 Democrats — six within the Home, seven within the Senate — who went in opposition to their social gathering to finish the shutdown that had dragged on an historic 43 days.

“The federal government is reopening as a result of Democrats had been keen to compromise,” Grey mentioned.

The deal, which was signed by President Trump final week, will fund the federal government via January 2026 and reinstate federal staff who had been laid off throughout the shutdown. It is going to additionally fund SNAP via September 2026, a provision that Grey says he wished to safe as a result of he worries that partisanship may result in one other shutdown in January.

Republicans assault his place

Though Grey voted with Republicans over the shutdown, nationwide Republican operatives nonetheless see his seat as a essential goal forward of subsequent 12 months’s election — and there’s good cause for that.

The seat has a historical past of social gathering flipping.

In 2024, Grey received his seat by 187 votes, the slimmest margin of any race within the nation. His opponent, Republican John Duarte, who forged himself a centrist within the race, had solely held the seat for one time period earlier than being beat. (And he defeated Grey two years earlier by simply 564 votes.)

President Trump carried the thirteenth final 12 months by 5 factors, underscoring the competitiveness of the Central Valley district which backed Joe Biden within the first Biden-Trump matchup of 2020.

The passage of Proposition 50 has made the district safer for Democrats as the brand new congressional map shifts elements of Stockton, Modesto and northern Stanislaus County into the district, whereas eradicating extra conservative, rural territory west of Fresno. Nonetheless, it stays a extremely aggressive district.

Like Duarte, Grey has positioned himself as a centrist, however that hasn’t stopped Republicans from portraying him as being from the social gathering’s far-left flank.

Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee, is now specializing in Grey’s voting historical past on the shutdown as a cause to criticize the incumbent. Particularly, how Grey in September abstained from voting on a invoice that will have prevented the shutdown.

“As a substitute of delivering outcomes for Californians, out-of-touch Democrat Adam Grey is simply too busy appeasing his radical socialist base, and now he’s absolutely answerable for holding Individuals hostage with the longest authorities shutdown in historical past,” Martinez mentioned.

Martinez added that “hardworking Californians paid the value for his refusal to vote to maintain the federal government open, and subsequent November, they’ll ship him packing.”

Grey is now dealing with a Republican problem from former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln. When Lincoln introduced his bid on Nov. 6, earlier than the shutdown deal vote, he criticized Grey for not doing sufficient to forestall the shutdown within the first place.

“Washington politicians like Adam Grey have fallen according to a failed liberal agenda that’s made life much less inexpensive and fewer secure,” Lincoln mentioned in an announcement.

Shifting ahead, Grey sees the vote as a possibility to reset negotiations and discover a bipartisan answer earlier than funding runs out once more on Jan. 30, 2026.

“I believe we’re shifting in the best path,” Grey mentioned. “I hope my colleagues have the braveness to do the best factor over the following days.”

Again in his district, Democrats have had a combined response to his vote. As for his congressional colleagues, they haven’t provided up a lot criticism, selecting to let Grey clarify his vote to the ever-changeable thirteenth District.