Senate Republicans are pushing intensely to nab the five additional Democratic votes they need to unlock their bill to end the government shutdown.

Republicans have shown little willingness to negotiate on the top Democratic priority — an extension of enhanced health care subsidies — as part of any funding deal, and instead are attempting to work directly to pick off the requisite support.

The GOP needs eight Democratic votes to advance the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and three members of the Democratic caucus sided with them on Tuesday’s vote.

But Democrats have shown few signs of budging since the Tuesday tally. In two votes since, no other senators jumped aboard, with discussions toward a deal on those tax credits seemingly hitting a wall.

“At some point, they’ve got to take ‘yes’ for an answer,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters on Friday. 

Here’s a look at five Democrats that Republicans are hoping to win over. 

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.)

For Republicans looking for votes to pick off within the Democratic caucus, Peters checks many of their boxes.

The Michigan Democrat is retiring at the end of his term, sparing him from any political backlash for potential breaking ranks. He was also among the nine Senate Democrats who voted alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in March to keep the government open — a move the leader is still picking up the pieces from. 

Peters is also part of the group trying to find a solution to the issue of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that expire at the end of the year, having said that he wants assurances on concessions on that front. 

He was part of a group of roughly a dozen members who huddled on the Senate floor Wednesday to discuss possible avenues to end the shutdown. 

But there are numerous things standing in the way of that happening, with the House’s reluctance to jump on board with any negotiated extension being a stumbling block. 

“There are all sorts of trust issues in both the Senate and the House, so we have to work through all of that,” Peters told reporters on Wednesday. “Trust is a problem, and we’ll have to deal with that and try to build trust in the process and create a framework that allows people to be confident that agreements that are made will actually be kept.” 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

Falling into a similar bucket as Peters is Shaheen, the longtime New Hampshire senator who has been a prime target for Republicans in this fight. 

Shaheen has made it clear she will continue to vote “no” on the House CR, but she is considered one of the members who can help pick the lock on a potential ACA subsidies deal that would allow the government to reopen. 

“I think this is an opportunity for us to talk to each other,” Shaheen told Fox News on Thursday. “I think we can address both keeping the government open and the health care needs of so many of our people. There’s urgency about this because we know that if we don’t address the premium tax credits, the subsidies that so many people have been getting to help afford health insurance, that they’re going to see their rates double by November.”

Like Peters, the New Hampshire Democrat is retiring, and also voted for the stopgap bill back in March.

She has also been a part of the negotiations, though multiple lawmakers have indicated they have become increasingly dormant in recent days. 

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)

If Shaheen and Peters were to break ranks and back the GOP’s CR, it is widely expected that Hassan would not be far behind.

The former New Hampshire governor is known for keeping a low profile on Capitol Hill, and the shutdown fight has been no different.

Nevertheless, she is currently holding the line with the Democratic caucus, but is striking a similar tone to Shaheen, her home-state colleague. 

“We need a bipartisan path forward in order to get to a deal that protects people’s health, healthcare and prevents their premiums from doubling,” she told CNN. 

Like Peters and Shaheen, she too voted for the CR back in March and is on the front line of Democrats who could switch sides eventually in the eyes of Republicans.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.)

The case of Ossoff, the Georgia senator, is a very different one from others on this list as he is running in what is easily the most important 2026 Senate race featuring a Democratic incumbent. 

He is expected to take on one of a trio of Republicans — Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.), Rep. Buddy Carter (Ga.) or Derek Dooley, the former University of Tennessee football coach who is backed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).

The theory goes that if the shutdown winds move precipitously in the GOP’s direction, that could help sway Ossoff to back the party’s “clean” CR. 

But he’s made clear he’s not ready to break ranks yet. When he was pressed about Schumer’s strategy, he directed his ire at the White House.

“The president needs to be in the room right now with congressional leaders,” Ossoff told Punchbowl News. “They have the White House, they have the Senate, they have the House. This is a question of presidential leadership.”

Republicans are unsurprisingly taking a sledgehammer to his votes against keeping the government open, specifically tying him to the withholding of veterans benefits that are ongoing as part of the shutdown and saying that he “stabbed veterans in the back.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.)

Winning the support of Durbin, the longtime No. 2 Senate Democrat, is viewed as the toughest get of any of these, but Republicans think they have reasons to believe it’s doable.

Durbin is among the cadre of Senate Democrats who is retiring at the end of the term, bringing a nearly four-and-a-half decade run in Washington to a close. With that decision comes the absence of political pressure that others — most notably, Schumer — would feel. 

The Illinois Democrat also voted for the spending bill in March, having been part of the leadership team to follow Schumer’s lead.

Yet, that’s what makes him the most difficult to win over for Republicans — Durbin voting with them on this CR would mean him breaking with Schumer and leadership, something that remains extremely unlikely to happen. If he votes for a bill, it would be expected that he has gotten the OK from leadership. 

Unsurprisingly, he is toeing the party line and has the New York Democrat’s back as this fight continues into next week. 

“I’m going to continue to vote against the CR because I think the ACA is critical, healthcare is a critical issue, but I hope we don’t accept that as a permanent situation and come up with a bipartisan alternative,” Durbin told reporters on Friday, adding that he is frustrated that the initial bipartisan talks borne out of informal talks on the floor does not seem to have progressed. 

“I don’t see that,” he said about the possibility of some moderate Democrats peeling off to back the CR in the coming days. “There have been some that have been talking from the start about what the overall strategy is and that conversation goes on. What troubles me is that the initial dialogue with the Republicans on the floor doesn’t seem to have blossomed into anything meaningful. I hope it does.”