No 2 House Democrat says healthcare drives party's strategy as shutdown heads into next week

Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives and the whip of the caucus, placed healthcare messaging at the center of the party’s attention in an interview with Fox News — even amid other questions about the party’s direction. 

"Fighting for healthcare is our defining issue," Clark told senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram on Thursday when asked whether the age of the party’s candidates would play into the party’s considerations in the 2026 midterms.

"Shutdowns are terrible and, of course, there will be, you know, families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage items we have. It is an inflection point in this budget process where we have tried to get the Republicans to meet with us and prioritize the American people."

DEMOCRATS ROLL OUT NEW CAMPAIGN ADS TARGETING REPUBLICANS OVER ONGOING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

The government ran out of funding on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on spending legislation for 2026, plunging the country into a shutdown that has gone on for 16 days. Democrats in Congress have made it clear they won’t support any funding package to reopen the government that doesn’t also include an extension of COVID-era Obamacare subsidies.

Those subsidies, which dramatically extended the pool of eligible applicants for enhanced premium tax credits as a part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan, are set to expire at the end of 2025. Several lawmakers from both parties have expressed alarm that letting them expire would leave millions of Obamacare policyholders — who took advantage of that extended eligibility — suddenly stuck with dramatically higher premiums overnight.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS THREATEN SHUTDOWN FIGHT TO PROTECT OBAMACARE PERKS

Open enrollment for the enhanced premium tax credits is set to start at the beginning of next month.

"We are watching a crisis come at us," Clark said. "And this is the crisis of that."

"The marketplace, the ACA marketplace, open enrollment takes place on November 1," she said, referring to Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). "People are receiving their premium notices that they're going to go to that marketplace and say, ‘I can't afford this.’ That is a real crisis for American families. And it drives up the cost of healthcare for every single person, no matter where you get your health insurance from."

Clark's messaging echoes the position of other leaders in the Democratic Party, such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who have similarly made healthcare a focus of their messaging on the shutdown.

Clark noted that Democrats perceive a heightened political leverage to push for an extension to the Obamacare credits in light of GOP-led changes to Medicaid that became law under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) earlier this year.

DEMOCRATS BLAME GOP FOR OBAMACARE WOES TIED TO PANDEMIC-ERA SUBSIDIES

"This is a fight that we are waging on behalf of the American people who are telling us, ‘We're not making it.' And they deserve to have healthcare when they need it that they can afford and where they need it," Clark said.

Among other changes, the OBBBA pushed some of the costs of Medicaid back onto the individual states, implemented new reporting requirements, and it introduced slightly higher work requirements for certain demographics.

Republicans in the House have rebuffed Democratic demands to open negotiations on the Obamacare tax credits as a condition for re-opening the government. Some of the chamber’s most conservative lawmakers called the idea a "non-starter" on Wednesday as the shutdown entered a third week.

The Senate voted for a 10th time on Thursday to reopen the government, but the vote failed amid the continued gridlock.