U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a campaign event in Norfolk earlier this month. Kaine was one of seven Senate Democrats to join Republicans in advancing a bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government, a move he said was aimed at protecting federal workers and ensuring a future Senate vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/ Virginia Mercury)

This story has been updated.

In a rare public split from his party, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., broke ranks with most Senate Democrats on Sunday to help advance a bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government — a package that restores pay and protections for federal workers but doesn’t deliver on the extension of the health care tax credits Democrats had been holding out for. The latter immediately prompted criticism from some within his party’s progressive wing.

Kaine, one of seven Democrats and one independent to join Republicans in moving the measure forward, framed his decision as a pragmatic step to end the record-long shutdown and secure key concessions for federal employees. 

“After the elections in Virginia last Tuesday, I kind of assessed on Wednesday, ‘Where are we?’ (on the shutdown). And so I decided to then join the discussions to try to find the path out, and brought to the table an issue that wasn’t subject to the negotiation really before I got there … which was how to treat federal workers,” Kaine said Monday in a Zoom call with reporters.

“And I asked my progressive colleagues in the caucus, do you think another week of punishing SNAP recipients is going to make the Republicans cave, and will another month make them cave? I don’t need to court anybody’s approval and I don’t need to fear anybody’s judgment,” Kaine said.

The Democrat isn’t up for reelection until 2030.

Vote signals a pivot — and a compromise

The procedural vote moving the stop-gap funding measure forward cleared the Senate late Sunday by a 60-40 vote. The legislation aims to reopen the federal government and fund key programs through the next several months, while laying out commitments to debate health-care subsidies and other policy priorities.

For Kaine, the deal included specific safeguards he said he insisted upon. 

The legislation would rehire federal employees who were terminated during the shutdown, provide back pay for all federal employees regardless of status, and include a pledge to prevent future reductions in force for the federal workforce. Those terms, Kaine said, constituted the threshold enabling his support.

He said that after weekend negotiations he locked in the agreement at “4:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon, and I feel very, very good about it.”

Kaine also said his action received support from Virginia Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who said on the CBS program Face the Nation Sunday that “Virginians need to and Virginians want to see the government reopen.”

“Controversial, tough call, some of my colleagues don’t like it,” Kaine said. “But my governor-elect is very happy with it, and I’m hearing from Virginians this morning. … ‘Thank God you did this.’”

Following up in an email Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for Spanberger emphasized that she supports Kaine’s effort.

“Governor-elect Spanberger has been consistent: Democrats and Republicans in Congress must bring an end to this government shutdown,” the spokesperson said. “Hundreds of thousands of Virginians are feeling the devastating impacts — lost paychecks, work disruptions, and lost SNAP benefits. Governor-elect Spanberger appreciates Senator Kaine fighting for protections for Virginia’s workforce and securing them as part of the negotiations.”

Virginia is disproportionately affected by the ongoing federal work stoppage. With more than 850,000 residents relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and one of the nation’s largest federal workforces, the ripple effects of the funding freeze have already hit home. 

The shutdown — triggered by a stalemate over annual appropriations bills and a tied debate over extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act — began in early October and has since grown into the longest in modern U.S. history. 

In Virginia, the freeze of SNAP payments spurred state action. In late October, Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and launched the Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance program to bridge benefit gaps. The crunch on federal workers and beneficiaries of food assistance added urgency to the political and policy equation.

Implications and dissent

Kaine presented the vote as a tactical win that would help reopen the government, secure worker protections, and then debate the more contentious health-care issues openly rather than under a shadow of shutdown chaos. 

“We don’t have a guarantee, but we have a guarantee of a very high-stakes debate and vote on the Senate floor in the full view of the American public, without the background noise of shutdown consequences drowning out the critical nature of the healthcare debate,” he said.

Still, not everyone agrees with his decision. Some progressive Democrats decried the move as ceding too much to Republicans and weakening leverage in negotiations. 

Political commentator Keith Olbermann, on X, demanded Kaine resign: “Don’t vote and then resign — RESIGN NOW. You are no longer a Democrat.” 

Others, such as retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the brother of U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Woodbridge, criticized the broader Senate Democratic caucus for collapsing before the public’s appetite for a fight.

“It’s striking and inexplicable that Senate Dems crumbled following decisive signals from the American electorate,” Vindman said on X. “Americans expect the Democrats to fight Trump and Republicans.”

In Virginia’s congressional delegation, responses further reflected the divide. 

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun, said he would vote “no” on the Senate proposal once it reached the House, faulting it for failing to fully address health-care costs or federal worker firings. 

“A promise not to fire federal workers in the future is no comfort … to federal workers already fired or contractors who lost their job or aren’t receiving back pay,” he said.

In contrast, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Fairfax, applauded Kaine’s move as protecting federal workers and ending “attack after attack” under the Trump administration.

On the Republican side, Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, said, “After 40 days of unnecessary hardship, Democrats have finally recognized that their government shutdown strategy was a failure. … Sadly, it came at the expense of our troops, SNAP recipients, and federal employees who bore the brunt of their political brinkmanship.” 

A calculated risk

Political scientist Stephen J. Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington said Kaine’s calculation reflects the kind of decision lawmakers make when they’re freed from the immediate pressures of reelection.

“The farther an elected official is from their next election, the more likely they are to make the decision about how to proceed based on sound public policy evaluation,” he said, noting that Kaine’s next reelection campaign is five years off.

“The fact that the Democratic senators who are part of this negotiation are some distance from their next election, or have announced their retirement, suggests that this is more about their evaluation of how the government should proceed rather than reelection considerations,” he said.

On the intra-party split between Kaine and fellow Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Farnsworth added: 

“It seems to me that reasonable people could disagree on what the party’s best step forward would be. And it’s certainly unusual when there is a difference of opinion between the two Democratic senators, but even people who agree most of the time don’t agree all the time.”

Warner, who voted against the compromise, said in a statement that while he appreciated that the Senate proposal includes “important language preventing further mass layoffs of federal employees,” he could not support an agreement that “still leaves millions of Americans wondering how they are going to pay for their health care or whether they will be able to afford to get sick.”

Whether Kaine’s move proves bold or miscalculated remains to be seen. 

“Only time will tell,” Farnsworth cautioned. “The reality is that an awful lot of people are suffering from the economic consequences of the shutdown. It’s better for the government to be open than not.”