Two Democratic groups are targeting 18 vulnerable Republican House members in districts that went to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election ahead of Thursday's speaker of the House vote.
Leaders of House Majority Forward, the nonprofit arm of Democrats' House Majority PAC, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the advocacy arm of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, called the new speaker vote a "no-win for House Republicans in Biden-won districts" in a memo released on Thursday.
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"These 18 Republicans face a clear choice: put the country first by working in a bipartisan fashion — as the Senate is doing — to prevent a painful government shutdown or continue to march in lockstep with MAGA extremists like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Lauren Boebert," wrote Navin Nayak, president of CAP Action, and Mike Smith, president of House Majority Forward. "This moment is a true test of their character."
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from the role last week in the wake of staving off a government shutdown by successfully passing a clean continuing resolution ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. The move infuriated hard-line conservatives and led Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to bring forward a motion to vacate that led to a historic 216-210 vote in which eight Republicans joined all Democrats to remove McCarthy.
Two Republicans have emerged as the front-runners to replace McCarthy, but neither House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) nor House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) have the required 217 votes to become the next House speaker. Whoever wins will have to deal with legislation that funds the government after Nov. 17, when a shutdown could be implemented if all 12 appropriations bills aren't passed.
The Democratic groups highlighted the battle next month in their memo. "Several MAGA Republicans in the House have already indicated that they will only support a speaker that commits to advancing all 12 of House Republicans’ agency funding bills," they wrote.
"These radical spending bills make devastating cuts that would compromise Americans’ safety and pull the rug out from under the middle class by, among other ways, enacting a federal ban on the most common form of abortion, eliminating financial aid for nearly 1.7 million college students, cutting federal funding virtually all public schools benefit from by 80 percent; gutting environmental protection for clean air and water; and defunding federal law enforcement while cutting funding for community violence prevention programs and making it harder to crack down on gun violence."
The memo also called out 17 of the 18 Republicans in Biden districts who voted for the first four appropriations bills that the House passed, "which are filled with extreme policies and a far-right culture war wishlist items," the authors wrote.
House Republicans remain committed to keeping spending at fiscal 2022 levels, a stance at odds with Senate Republicans and Democrats, including the White House, who want to keep spending at the fiscal 2024 levels agreed to during the debt limit agreement in late May.
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Yet the Democratic memo urges the 18 Republicans to commit to a bipartisan bill to fund the government or risk devastating the economy and harming families.
"The writing is clearly on the wall: failing to secure a guarantee that the next Speaker will commit to working in a bipartisan fashion on appropriations bills, is a vote to keep MAGA extremists in charge, and all but assures the government will shut down," the memo states. "With a divided government, the only path to keeping the government open is a bipartisan approach."