U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), who has voted five times for the GOP stopgap to reopen the federal government, told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday night that he’s “contemplating” changing his vote and voting NO “unless the Republicans are more forthcoming dealing with the ACA problem.”
King referred to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) saying on Friday that the Republicans were “open to conversations” but said of the Speaker’s vague promise, “that’s not good enough.”
Angus King, who has voted five times for the GOP stopgap to reopen govt, told me he’s “contemplating” changing and voting NO “unless the Republicans are more forthcoming dealing with the ACA problem.” He’s undecided about tomorrow pic.twitter.com/3Kmqmp1MKd
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 6, 2025
King added, “I think this is something the President should be paying attention to because he’s gonna be facing huge premium increases all over the country in about three weeks. When I’m saying huge, I mean in the tens of thousands of dollars to middle income people.”
King reiterated: “I was in the expectation that there would be some more forthcoming assurances about dealing with this issue and it just hasn’t happened.”
As seen below, on September 30, King explained why he initially voted to keep the government open.
He said: “The irony of this vote is many feel that this was an opportunity to stand up to Donald Trump, to vote no, and to fight back. The irony, the paradox, is by shutting the government, we’re actually giving Donald Trump more power. And that is why I voted yes. I did not want to hand Donald Trump and Russell Vought and Stephen Miller additional power to decimate the federal government, to decimate the programs that are so important to so many people.”
I voted to keep the government open because a shutdown will give President Trump the ability to do far greater damage.
— Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) October 1, 2025
More here ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MSKbpJxAsj
