This is the next of our series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. .
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Some of you have followed my very successful political career, at least since I was elected to the Senate in 2005. I cast myself as a George W. Bush Republican, eager to remove obstacles to his policies as he began his second term. What it meant to be John Thune was to have people describe me as a solid conservative with a moderate approach and a yen for building consensus. That is still who I am.
You might ask yourself how I as Senate Majority Leader could walk away from my past as the Senate agreed to its version of the Donald Trump proposal on taxes, spending and debt? It aims to extract many billions of savings from the help we give to poor people to get more money to comfort the comfortable. How could I square my own commitments to human compassion with the plan to cut access to food aid and remove medical assistance from ten million Americans?
The easy answer is my job was and is to find consensus within my party. However, two things have happened in the past week that make that easy answer unacceptable to me. First, when my colleague Thom Tillis announced his no vote on the Senate floor, he told the truth about what Medicaid cuts would do to the least of our brethren in North Carolina. He said we are breaking the promise not to cut entitlements. For me, he raised the image of a child writhing in pain or even dying with caregivers hugging them through their last breath. I am haunted by those we will leave behind, as we shamefully field the media-tailored White House untruth that Medicaid will be unchanged for those for whom it is intended. The President gets to say whatever he wants (“We’re not cutting Medicaid”) but we are making the biggest health care cuts in history. Unbelievably, some of my colleagues are reveling in this.
We’ve grabbed food stamps away at the same time, reducing the rolls by over three million people. Unbelievably, the motivation in part is to have more funds to give to people who have long since stopped needing the money. We should require billionaires to go to grocery stores, stand in the aisles and take things from the grocery carts of those we are disqualifying.
What were once Republican conservatives have lost our party. There is no clearer sign than the Kabuki-theatre style drama we set up for Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. I think some Americans even bought into Lisa Murkowski’s “agonizing” vote to put the bill over the top, and Susan Collins’ “fight” for rural hospitals. At least Rand Paul stood for something with his no vote. Collins and Murkowski stood for nothing. At no point did I fear that they would extract major changes. As the majority leader, I would let Lisa Murkowski settle for her whaling captain tax break every day of the week. And take Josh Hawley, please. His principled plea to protect Medicaid ended up in a vote in favor of the enormous cut. Where did he really stand?
There’s more to say, but I won’t say it. Many of my colleagues had cheered the inventiveness of solar and wind energy entrepreneurs in our states, bolstered by the previous administrations. We stood by while the bill assaulted those companies, which will force many to close.
It’s a hard business. I understand as a Senator that you don’t always win. I get it when my colleagues fear recrimination from someone who hasn’t hesitated to employ political punishment. I have felt the same lash myself. In December 2020 I announced that the election results would stand and was threatened with a primary challenge. I fought for the COVID vaccine. But the fact that I once stood up and didn’t this time makes being part of this awful month harder, not easier.
The “resistance” doesn’t seem to get how much of this bill they can unravel as they take the House back in 2026. Many of the Medicaid changes are being phased in, to try to protect our swing district House members from what otherwise may befall them. They can be phased out as well. Some of the most severe cuts aren’t scheduled until 2027, which gives Democrats the challenge of getting the millions of independents and Republicans who receive Medicaid to register their disapproval before they feel the reality of being thrown out of the system. Resisters even think Elon Musk’s pronouncements and money will have a minor impact, which is not close to accurate. If Musk does what he says he will do, it will muddy every close race.
If I were in the shoes of those who can publicly oppose what just happened, I would read and follow the recommendations in David Harrison’s missives:
1) Quit the Rending of the Garments
Donald Trump didn’t win a second term. We gave him one. Perhaps it is unwise to start a chorus of cries that our republic started on July 4, 1776, and ended upon the President’s bill signing on July 3. Might that not be just a little bit self-defeating?
2) Support Roy Cooper
Perhaps the only good thing that happened for Democrats during the last month was Donald Trump unfairly torching John Thune’s friend North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and blocking him from seeking re-election. The president had several good conversations with the highly respected Tillis before his severe attacks on social media, leading to the Senator’s decision not to run again. This seat replaces Susan Collins’ Maine race as the number one Democrat take back opportunity. Democratic former Governor Roy Cooper is popular. He won the governorship in 2016 even as Trump was getting the state’s electoral votes. Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump will find that Trump’s political appeal is not transferable. Supporters will have to wait a little while. Roy Cooper will make his decision to run in the next month
3) Target Vulnerable House Members
Polling on the generic congressional vote is more favorable for us than it was in November 2024. From now until November 2026 there will be lists of which Republican congressional candidates are most vulnerable. Swing Left is already raising money for a fund that targets 15 Republican incumbents, all of whom won by less than 3% in 2024, and all of whom will be more vulnerable because of their recent vote to root out whoever is in need and take away whatever we had been giving to them. It’s the best targeting going right now. Eventually Swing Left will create “district funds” which will be set aside for individual races until someone wins the primary. The Cook Report is a little more conservative on which races are in play. At this point, the Democratic Congressional Campaign is also raising PAC money for targeted races. Understandably, they want to put as many races as possible into play. They have identified 35 districts to target.
As the Supreme Court closed off Federal District Court judges issuing national injunctions, they identified other promising paths for the legion of litigators that remain in aggressive support of our Constitution. In addition to the above strategies, let’s stay tuned on that, and let’s channel our anger into action against the man who would be King.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
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