The group of House Republicans voting to buck President Trump and end the government shutdown grew to a dozen members on Thursday — including the GOP’s most recent campaign chairman.
Twelve Republicans voted to fully fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing & Urban Development Thursday afternoon, up a bit from a previous high of eight members on Wednesday.
There were two new Republicans in this group, including Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), who until just weeks ago was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the person in charge of the GOP’s campaign efforts. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) was the other new member of the list.
Ten other Republicans had voted to fund at least one other government agency in recent days, though not all of them had voted for all of the bills. Reps. Will Hurd (R-TX), Greg Walden (R-OR), Fred Upton (R-MI), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), John Katko (R-NY) and Brian Fitpatrick (R-PA) have been consistent in their support to reopen the government, while Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) joined the efforts on Wednesday. Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) voted for this latest bill as well, having supported one earlier bill. That entire group — but not Stivers and Davis — also voted to fund Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration programs Thursday afternoon.
The group is a mix of establishment-minded old bulls like Upton and Walden who are unafraid to buck Trump and members like Katko, Herrera Beutler and Davis who are from competitive districts and who had tough races in 2018.
Stivers’ office didn’t respond to questions as to why he voted for the Transportation and HUD bill and whether he plans to back future efforts to reopen the government without funding the border wall, as Trump has continued to demand.
But his addition to the group means the last two GOP campaign committee chairmen have now voted with Democrats and against Trump and their own party leadership to reopen the government on at least one bill. Walden was NRCC chairman for the 2014 and 2016 election cycles.
