Political leaders in Washington are spending considerable energy blaming the other party for what could be an extended government shutdown, and that effort includes shaping the narrative for next year’s elections. The Democratic campaign arm for House members has taken out digital ads in 35 districts it considers competitive. The ads accuse the Republicans of “standing in the way of affordable health care — on purpose.” The ads align with Democratic insistence that their health coverage concerns be addressed as part of a bill to fund the government, a demand Republicans have rejected. A Democratic-aligned group, House Majority Forward, also launched a $3 million ad campaign in 10 Republican-held districts. The House Republican campaign organization has launched two digital ads in swing districts. “It’s sabotage. Democrats are threatening a government shutdown to stop President Trump’s policies. Like Trump’s crackdown on MS-13 and violent criminals,” one of the ads says. Meanwhile, two conservative advocacy groups, One Nation and American Action Network, announced ad buys in New York and Washington markets. “The woke mob demanded a government shutdown,” the ad says. “So that’s exactly what liberals in Congress are doing.” With narrow margins determining who controls each chamber of Congress, the two parties cannot afford to leave anything to chance when it comes to winning the shutdown’s messaging campaign. But recent history suggests there is reason to doubt the shutdown will be a factor in the 2026 election. Republicans won big after forcing a shutdown in 2013 The October 2013 shutdown that lasted for 16 full days is Exhibit A. Republicans demanded significant changes to Democratic-President Barack Obama’s signature health care law in exchange for funding the government and giving the Treasury Department the ability to borrow to pay the nation’s bills. Doug Heye, who served as deputy chief of staff to then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., recalls GOP leadership worrying about the political ramifications. But many in the rank and file were convinced by a few GOP senators that they had a winning hand and could use a shutdown as leverage to roll back portions of the Affordable Care Act, he said. “We basically said, if this is what these guys want, they’ll touch the stove, they’ll get burned and figure out, well, you don’t do that. This is not the smart course,” Heye said. That is pretty much what happened. Republicans gave in as polls showed the GOP faring poorly. But it did not take long for the public to move on. A little more than a year later, Republicans scored big wins at the ballot box. They gained 13 seats in the House, expanding upon their already significant majority. They also gained nine seats in the Senate, seizing the majority. Heye said the election was a lesson that unless a shutdown becomes protracted and begins to affect voters on a personal level, the electoral fallout will probably be minimal. “Voters tend to have short memories on this. Whoever they’ve blamed, they’ve moved on to one, or two, or 10 things over the course of a year,” Heye said. The longest shutdown is harder to judge The election results were mixed following the 2018-2019 partial shutdown that lasted 35 days. Republican President Donald Trump insisted that a funding bill include billions of dollars for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Senate Democrats refused to go along. The shutdown ended as […]  | Read More The Yeshiva World