Congress
Republicans just cut Medicaid. Will it cost them control of Congress?
Republicans just delivered Donald Trump a “big, beautiful” legislative win. Now they’re fretting it will lead to some ugly electoral losses.
GOP lawmakers are warning that slashing spending on Medicaid and food assistance will cost the party seats in the midterms — threatening their razor-thin House majority — by kicking millions of Americans off safety-net programs.
“You would be foolish not to worry about it,” Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) said in a brief interview. “If you don’t keep the voters right with you, you’re going to awaken to a bad, bad, bad day.”
Justice voted for the megabill last week, despite his concerns over some of its Medicaid provisions — and after warning Republicans “cannot cut into the bone.” Steep cuts, he said, would cost the GOP voters and lead the party to “awaken to [being in the] minority.”
Republicans have already lost one of their most vulnerable senators over the bill: North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, who privately told his colleagues he would lose his seat over Medicaid cuts before announcing his retirement and publicly torching the public-health overhaul on the Senate floor. Another vulnerable GOP senator, Susan Collins of Maine, opposed it over the “harmful impact” Medicaid cuts would have on low-income families and rural health care providers.
“When you don’t get health care right, it tends to have probably an outsized impact on politics,” Tillis said in a brief interview ahead of the Senate’s vote. He warned his party that slashing Medicaid could become a political albatross, like the Affordable Care Act was for Democrats during Barack Obama’s presidency.
The final bill, passed by the House Thursday, delivered a $1 trillion-plus cut to health care programs and could lead to an estimated 11.8 million people losing their insurance.
House Speaker Mike Johnson privately cautioned that the deeper cuts the Senate passed could cost him his slim majority next year, though he ultimately whipped his members to support the changes. Several Republicans said the cuts would make the bill a tougher sell to their voters.
Adding to the GOP angst: Democrats are preparing to weaponize the bill as they did Republicans’ failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017. That 2018 midterm election led to a GOP wipeout in the House, with the party losing 40 seats, including some districts in Trump-leaning territory. Democrats are planning to again hitch vulnerable Republicans to the cuts to social safety-net programs.
“I could have defended the House bill every day,” said GOP Rep. Don Bacon, who had raised concerns over cuts to food aid and announced he would retire from his Nebraska swing seat as the Senate prepared to deepen the cuts in the House bill.
“The other side is going to use Medicaid as an issue,” he said, even as he voted for the megabill. “And I think the Senate [version of the bill] gives them a little more leverage to do so.”
Republicans are walking a tightrope as they return to their districts to start selling the sweeping policy package. They’re going to lean into the megabill’s popular provisions, like eliminating taxes on tips, while trying to escape unpopular reductions to safety-net programs. The final bill slashes spending by $1.7 trillion.
Voters broadly dislike the megabill; some recent polling shows a 2-to-1 margin of disapproval, according to surveys conducted by Quinnipiac University, The Washington Post, Pew Research and Fox News. Nearly half of voters want more federal funding for Medicaid, while just 10 percent want less, according to Quinnipiac.
“What we know from past elections is that messing with people’s healthcare coverage is very problematic for politicians. And it has, in the past, yielded some very, very negative views about the people who supported it,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
Meanwhile Democrats are rushing to capitalize on the controversy and plan to make it a centerpiece of their midterm messaging.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke on the floor for eight hours and 45 minutes, reading letters from constituents of vulnerable GOP lawmakers who could lose access to both programs. Democratic candidates followed up with post-vote statements blasting the Republicans they’re looking to unseat for effectively kicking people in their districts off their health care plans.
Their campaign arms and allied super PACs have already released several rounds of ads hammering vulnerable Republicans and say they plan to keep up the pace.
Republicans are trying to figure out how to fight back.
Their early salvos have focused on painting Democrats as supportive of tax hikes since they opposed a bill that would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and eliminate federal taxes on tips and overtime. Republicans also argue they’re protecting the “most vulnerable” Medicaid recipients by removing undocumented immigrants and others they say shouldn’t have access to the program anyway.
But in a tacit acknowledgment of the potential electoral fallout, some Republicans have pledged to try to reverse provisions such as the provider tax drawdown before they take effect in 2028.
“To the extent that there’s reform, and … you can legitimately argue it’s the waste, fraud, abuse, that’s a good position to be in,” said Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho). “If it’s just strictly a situation where you say, ‘We’re just cutting and spending’ and it’s not cognizant as to how and where, that’s where we get into trouble.”
Another potential security blanket for the GOP: Many Americans at risk of steep Medicaid cuts reside in deep-red swaths of the country that are unlikely to turn blue next year. But there are also high percentages of Medicaid enrollees in some GOP-held swing districts Democrats are itching to flip.
The Senate’s harsher Medicaid language prompted Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) to vote against the megabill, putting him in the company of deficit hawk Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Fitzpatrick, in a statement, said the Senate’s changes “fell short” of protecting constituents in his suburban Philadelphia district that has more than 100,000 enrollees.
Another top Democratic target, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), voted in favor of the bill despite expressing “several concerns” with the stricter limits on provider taxes and state-directed payments that he unsuccessfully lobbied Senate Majority Leader John Thune not to include.
Valadao lost his seat in Democrats’ health-care-fueled 2018 wave, when liberal groups successfully yoked him to GOP efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and won it back in 2020. Now those groups are running the same playbook in his Central Valley district that enrolls nearly two-thirds of his constituents in Medicaid — the highest percentage in the GOP conference.
Valadao, who fought for months to rein in some of the changes to the program, sought to justify his vote in a statement Thursday by arguing “it does preserve the Medicaid program for its intended recipients” and includes a $50 billion stabilization fund to offset harm to rural hospitals.
New York Rep. Mike Lawler, whose lower-Hudson Valley district has more than 200,000 people enrolled in Medicaid, said in a brief interview that he “fought extensively to make sure that there were not draconian changes to Medicaid” and that lawmakers will have time to address some of the others before they take effect.
“At the end of the day, this is about strengthening the program,” he said. As for electoral consequences: “You just tell people what’s actually in the bill, as opposed to what the Democrats have been trying to fearmonger on.”
But Democrats are confident that “putting shine on a turd” will not work, said Ian Russell, a consultant who served as the political director of Democrats’ House campaign arm in 2014 and 2016.
“Republicans are running back their 2018 playbook,” said CJ Warnke, communications director for House Majority PAC, the Democratic leadership-aligned super PAC. “And it’s once again going to cost them the majority.”
Samuel Benson, Cassandra Dumay, Melanie Mason, Nicholas Wu and Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
GOP Rep. Russell Fry threw his support behind Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) for a full term in the Senate — a key endorsement for the political newcomer who’s locked in a heated primary runoff with Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
“On August 25, I’m asking everyone who supported our campaign to join me in supporting Darline Graham for the United States Senate,” Fry said in a statement Friday.
Fry, who unsuccessfully ran in the snap primary to replace late Sen. Lindsey Graham as the Republican nominee on the November ballot, came in third place during the first round of voting. His support for Graham — who entered the race with President Donald Trump’s early backing — will be fundamental in helping her shore up votes in his deeply conservative coastal home region, potentially countering Norman’s dominance in Upstate South Carolina.
It’s a notable shift after Graham and Fry traded fierce barbs in the leadup to the Aug. 11 primary, primarily through attack ads sponsored by their campaigns and outside allies.
Fry claimed Graham “ballooned the size” and doubled the spending of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, which she has led since 2019. Security in Strength, a Graham-aligned PAC, blanketed local TV with an ad that shows an AI-depiction of Fry’s likeness transposed onto a slice of meat in a frying pan being dumped out by Trump.
Now, Graham and Norman are racing to win influential endorsements from powerbrokers across the state to build a majority coalition ahead of the Aug. 25 runoff.
Graham has received the backing of fellow South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott as well as Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and GOP nominee for Agriculture Commissioner Cody Simpson — both close allies of Trump and Gov. Henry McMaster. Norman has banked the support of several senators — Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — as well as former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Former Gov. Mark Sanford, who also ran in the Senate primary and failed to make the runoff, has not yet publicly backed a candidate.
Florida’s primary next week will test whether Debbie Wasserman Schultz can survive her latest fall from grace within the Democratic party she’s served for decades.
Her run in the state’s 20th District has roiled the caucus: Wasserman Schultz, 59, is facing a crowded slate of challengers —several of them younger, several of them Washington outsiders — in an election cycle that has increasingly seen its voters oust longtime incumbents in favor of generational insurgents.
But it’s her decision to run in one of a dwindling number of majority-Black districts after Republicans redrew her former seat that has deeply divided colleagues.
“It’s a painful situation,” says Rep. Yvette Clarke, the Congressional Black Caucus chair. “To have a beloved colleague who made a decision basically to run in a district where historically there’s been CBC representation, and I know that the community has been really disrupted by it.”
The CBC has warned that 19 representatives of 61 could lose their seats this cycle thanks to a Supreme Court ruling making it harder to challenge congressional maps on racial discrimination grounds.
Wasserman Schultz’s gambit is that voters in the district will want someone with her seniority and experience to take on President Donald Trump.
“We have to make sure we’re putting the strongest fighter on the field,” she told Blue Light News after entering the race.
But she’s wholly unwelcome by the rest of the all-Black primary slate. Competitor Dale Holness tried to convince her she could keep her redrawn district blue by running there instead. But Wasserman Schultz refused.
“The biggest disappointment for me, and what makes me most upset, is she was positioned to win that seat better than anyone else in South Florida,” Holness said, “and she gave up that fight for expediency to take something away from a community that has been most loyal to the Democratic Party.”
Now, given her name recognition and more than $3.3 million in fundraising, she’s considered the front-runner for the 20th District.
Some critics view Wasserman Schultz’s race as similar to the controversy that forced her to step down as DNC chair in 2016. That’s when Bernie Sanders supporters accused her of tipping the scales in the presidential primary for Hillary Clinton, and Wasserman Schultz became the face of an establishment critics said was fixated on protecting its power.
Still, Wasserman Schultz maintains a deep bench of supporters from her party – including Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a past CBC chair and a friend going back 20 years. Cleaver campaigned with her in the district and called it a “tough situation.”
“Wouldn’t it be ugly if I’m driving down the street with Debbie Wasserman Schultz in my red convertible, and I see an African American standing on the road without a ride, and they ask me to stop, put Debbie out of the car? Let them get in because they are African American? I don’t roll like that.”
What else we’re watching:
— CONGRESS’ SOCIAL MEDIA STARS: A little known Louisiana Republican just a few years ago, Speaker Mike Johnson has easily cleared over a million followers on X. So too has House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laps them both, with 3.6 million follows on X. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune — though he’s been at the top of his party for fewer years — is trailing at around 373,000 followers. And apart from leadership, a Blue Light News analysis shows members of the 119th Congress are growing more viral than ever.
— JEFFRIES TARGETS FILIBUSTER, VOTING RIGHTS: Jeffries Thursday spelled out his more ambitious goals if Democrats take control of both chambers. On his agenda: pushing for Senate filibuster reform, passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, a full repeal of the 2010 Citizens United campaign finance decision and changes to structure of the Supreme Court, Jeffries said in comments at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Atlanta.
Kimberly Leonard, Riley Rogerson and Cassandra Dumay contributed to this report.
Members of the 119th Congress are bigger on social media than ever before.
Dozens of lawmakers boast millions of Instagram followers and nearly 100 have launched TikTok accounts — in spite of Congress’ own attempts to reign in the platform.
With attention so often the most valuable currency on Capitol Hill, large followings can translate to opportunities for members to elevate their profile, drive a narrative or make a stink that’s impossible for leadership to ignore. Generating clippable moments has become a ubiquitous goal of committee work, floor debates and any other congressional business that involves a camera.
And as Democrats and Republicans reckon with generational change in their ranks, the ability to message online has also become a growing litmus test for future party leaders and a prerequisite for any presidential wannabe.
Blue Light News analyzed social media followings on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for all sitting members of Congress to see whose hard work to win reach and influence has paid off. For lawmakers who regularly use both an official and personal account, Blue Light News deferred to the account with the highest following.
Here’s a look at members’ internet cache and how it’s growing:
Standard bearers
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez (D-N.Y.), two darlings of the progressive movement, boast huge numbers.
Sanders has a whopping 14.9 million followers on X, 8.9 million on Instagram, 3.7 million on TikTok and 8.2 million on Facebook.
Ocasio-Cortez is the only member of Congress to rival Sanders’ following with 12.6 million followers on X, 9.7 million on Instagram, 4.1 million on TikTok and 2.2 million on Facebook.
Another high-profile progressive, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, stands out with 16.5 million followers across platforms. And Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who has led a campaign to juice Senate Democrats’ social media presence, has 10.7 million followers on all platforms collectively.
“I’ve always believed in meeting people where they’re getting their information, building community, and shaping their understanding of the world,” Booker said in a statement, adding, “when we use these tools with intention and authenticity, we can break down barriers, strengthen our democracy, and stay rooted in the conversations that matter most.”
For Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas runs ahead of the pack with his social media following: 7 million on X, 1.3 million on Instagram and 2.8 million on Facebook. Cruz, like most of his GOP peers, does not have a presence on TikTok, but he is dominating Blue Light News podcast scene with “Verdict.”
Breakout stars
One lawmaker capturing major new social media attention this Congress is Sen. John Kennedy, whose folksy clips that regularly feature his exercise machine named “Margaret” have garnered over 1 million followers on X and Instagram.
The Louisiana Republican has also gotten a boost from other users’ almost-inescapable compilation videos of his colorful similes and sayings. The newfound stardom for the senator is also sparking buzz about a potential 2028 presidential bid — which he isn’t ruling out.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has also taken off with explanatory videos and clips of her work on the panel that have drawn in 1.2 million TikTok followers.
2028 buzz
Members weighing a 2028 presidential bid have amassed some of the highest followings in the 119th Congress.
Other than Cruz on the Republican side, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has over 8.5 million followers across his top accounts on each platform, while Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — who is not on TikTok — trails Paul with his own 5.6 million followers.
For Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez and Booker lead the pack, followed by Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia with 3.6 million followers; Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut both have about 2.5 million.
Members who previously made White House runs also enjoy large followings. That includes Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, now the Democratic nominee for governor, who has 3.5 million followers and enjoyed attention for posting photos with buff, shirtless firefighters.
Best of committees
Wielding a committee gavel also doesn’t hurt social media engagement, especially on X.
The House Judiciary Committee is led by two social media heavyweights: Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), with his staggering 6.8 million X followers, and top Democrat Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who has just under a million on X.
“We’re using social media every day to counter disinformation and to rally the forces of democracy and freedom,” Raskin said in a statement. “It’s pretty amazing to go from a situation where we used to have to issue press releases whenever we wanted to say anything to a situation where we can communicate directly with millions of people.”
Rep. Maxine Waters of California — the longtime top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee — also stands out for her 1.4 million X followers.
Across the Capitol, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has about a million followers on X and, at 92 years old, is famous for doing his own social media posting. He’s gone viral for his earnest use of misspelled words and abbreviations to adhere to the platform’s character limits and enjoys sharing snapshots of his everyday life — such as when he ran over a deer with his car.
First timers
If there’s one star of the House’s freshman class online, it’s Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas. The GOP hard-liner is nearing 1 million followers on Instagram, where he shares clips of his committee appearances or TV hits. He also has over 699,900 followers on TikTok with millions of “likes,” and over 368,700 followers on X.
Behind him on Instagram are Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), with over 188,000 followers, and Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), with over 186,000 followers — both on their top platforms.
The goal for many members isn’t just virality — “it’s effective messaging,” McBride said in a statement. “And even if it is just a funny video, we need to break through the toxicity in our discourse and remind one another of our shared humanity. At the end of the day, social media isn’t just a communications tool.”
McBride is also a lead performer on TikTok with 153,600 followers, as is Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), who is building his own momentum with over 73,900 followers, where he’s seemingly hopping on every trend on the app.
“I always try to reel people in with the fun or interesting stuff, and then I try to keep them around with the floor speeches and the traditional videos that you would expect from a member of Congress,” Subramanyam said. “Both are important.”
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-Ariz.) is another freshman on the rise with nearly half a million X followers. “I speak unapologetically, and that tends to get attention,” he said in a statement.
Of Senate freshmen, Sen. Adam Schiff wins in a landslide with 3.3 million followers on X — his top account. The California Democrat rose to prominence as a member of the House, when he was a manager of President Donald Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial.
Leaders in leadership
A little known Louisiana Republican just a few years ago, Speaker Mike Johnson is now widely followed online with 1.2 million followers on his official X account, where every top leader has their most substantial following. His Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, has his own 1 million.
On X, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York laps both House leaders with his own 3.6 million X followers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota — who has led his party in the Senate for eight fewer years than Schumer — trails with 373,000.
But former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who is retiring at the end of this term, still dominates them all, with 8.6 million X followers.
Hard left and hard right
Members who make noise on the House floor are also skilled at grabbing attention on social media.
On the right, firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) runs away with 5.1 million followers on her personal X account, by far her biggest platform. She’s also amassed a significant following on Instagram, with nearly half a million followers.
And in the universe of far-right social media phenoms, Rep. Thomas Massie is also front and center with nearly two million X followers. The Kentucky Republican, who coined the hashtag #SassyWithMassie and is known for bucking his party, has over half a million followers on Instagram.
Trailing Massie is Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who has close to a million followers on X. Luna’s personal Instagram account, meanwhile, boasts 791,000 followers.
In the Senate, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — who has a penchant for waging war with leadership via social media — has 852,000 X followers.
A slate of progressives have also built mega-followings, especially the original members of the so-called “Squad.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has 2.8 million followers on her personal X account, 1.6 million followers on Instagram and over 863,300 followers on TikTok.
Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also have big networks, with Tlaib passing 1.4 million followers on X and over 745,000 on Instagram. Pressley has nearing a million followers on X and near half a million on Instagram.
And that’s a wrap
As Massie learned the hard way through his primary defeat, social media success doesn’t necessarily translate into electoral victory.
Other members who will not be bringing their million-plus followers back for the 120th Congress include GOP Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who runs a popular podcast “Hold These Truths,” and high-velocity poster Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett — who juiced her profile in Congress by posting unabashed takedowns of her Republican counterparts — also lost her primary for Texas Senate despite 2.9 million Instagram followers.
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