Democrats struggle to find cohesive messaging strategy during government shutdown

the Government shutdown Expected to enter its third week, it appears Democrats are still struggling in search of a cohesive messaging strategy.

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

Meanwhile, a group selfie of House Democrats, taken on September 29, just before the shutdown, received 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

Democrats have been struggling to focus the debate on health care, and their argument that any deal to reopen the federal government should at least include an extension of enhanced COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

Senate Democrats are again blocking the GOP plan to reopen the government as the military pay deadline approaches

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, September 29, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

While polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support extending subsidies, surveys conducted on the government shutdown have been more mixed, with a large number of Americans blaming both parties.

new Reuters/Ipsos poll Results released Wednesday showed that 67% of Americans believe Republicans deserve “a fair amount or a great deal of blame” for the shutdown, compared with 63% for Democrats.

A New York Times/Siena Poll The poll taken on the eve of the shutdown showed Democrats had a similar advantage over the GOP in the shutdown fight, but 65% of people did not think Democrats should shut down the government if their demands were not met.

“Democrats continue to pick the wrong fights, including the shutdown fight. At best, a shutdown will give them a political tie where the public will blame both sides,” Julian Epstein, a former Democratic staffer on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital.

“But they won’t get a game-changer from this conflict, and the danger for them is that the longer it drags on, the more the public will see Democrats as the ones narcissistically voting to shut down the government after losing an election.”

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

Jones said he supports extending Obamacare subsidies, but said it was perhaps foolish for his party to get into that fight over the shutdown before people received notice that their insurance premiums were likely to rise.

“I get it, Al Qaeda is upset… ‘Please do something, do anything,’ but ‘thing’ probably shouldn’t cast a shadow of doubt.” A bunch of people are out of work He said: “In the federal government and crushing the American government’s ability to function before the pain begins.”

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

It is not yet clear whether Democrats have an agreed-upon roadmap on how to handle the shutdown yet.

Late last week, before House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that the House would be out of session for another week while Republicans’ funding bill stalled in the Senate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Fox News Digital unequivocally: “Yes,” he would call on all House Democrats to return to Washington. To compare the two sides.

However, he backed away from that somewhat on Monday. When asked by Fox News Digital if he would still bring back the full caucus, Jeffries said: “We have a caucus at 6 p.m. today. We’re going to have a House Democratic caucus leadership meeting, that’s the full leadership, tomorrow. And I expect a strong House Democratic presence all over here in Washington.”

But what he didn’t specify 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 a year “laughable” despite having support from 11 members of his Democratic caucus.

The Senate advances the 2026 defense bill after weeks of delay as the shutdown continues

He walked back those comments again, saying: “If anything is presented to us, of course, the caucus will consider it in good faith.”

But Republicans have also taken their share of public criticism over the shutdown messaging as well.

president Donald Trump Aggressive rhetoric on federal layoffs put Republicans in Congress in a tough spot earlier this month, though Trump has since softened his tone and has yet to implement those layoffs.

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

Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and founder of campaign consulting firm Authentic, said Democrats are doing the right thing in focusing on health care while criticizing Republican 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 Republicans have played into their worst tendencies on this, which is that a lot of their messaging is very focused on the Internet. The Mexican hat stuff is kind of funny. But they’ve gotten all into it, and they don’t have a good answer for supporting health care.”

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

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Nellis also argued that Republicans’ touting the “landslide” electoral victory made them shoulder a greater share of the blame.

“When you create the conditions I talked about The state that “It happened, and the government was shut down while you were there, you are responsible for shutting down the government,” he said.

However, he said he would give Democrats a grade of “B, B minus” on their messaging, adding that it is “not perfect.”

“Maybe the answer is… Republicans are losing the shutdown fight, rather than Democrats winning it,” Nellis said. “But I just think we have a lot more right than a lot wrong, and this is the first time you can say that in a long time.”