A handful of moderate House Republicans in tight reelection contests have done something that most Republicans would consider unthinkable — renounce the GOP catechism on repealing Obamacare as they fight for their political lives. They say they oppose the health law but are reluctant to tear it up completely.

"Unless there is a bipartisan solution to fix the law, I don't think we should be taking symbolic votes," to repeal it, said Rep. Bob Dold of Illinois, who is casting himself as a bipartisan voice in Congress as he fights to hang on to one of the most competitive districts in the country.


The break with party leaders in the deeply contentious health care fight reflects a larger change on the campaign trail throughout the country: For the first time since Obamacare’s passage six years ago, and after House Republicans have taken over 60 votes to try to repeal it, the crusade appears to be losing its fire as a political rallying cry, taking a back seat to worries over national security and the economy.

Donald Trump spends far more time bashing Mexicans, Muslims and “job-killing” free trade than talking about repealing the Affordable Care Act.

The Republican Senate candidates — with the exception of Sen. John McCain in Arizona — haven't made the health law an overarching theme this year, even though many of them won their last race in 2010 railing against the law that was only a few months old at the time.

Most surprising, Dold was one of three House Republicans — along with Reps. John Katko of New York and Bruce Poliquin of Maine — to openly flout GOP orthodoxy by voting against the law’s repeal in January 2015. Earlier this year, Dold and Katko also voted against repealing huge portions of the law as part of a budget bill.

To be sure, the break from the party line is limited at this point to a few House members in some of the most moderate districts in the country, where positioning oneself as open to the health law’s benefits is politically advantageous. And it shouldn’t be mistaken for support of the law: They just aren’t eager to repeal it without a replacement.

But in the harsh politics of Obamacare, even the slightest move against repeal, or symbolic repeal votes that were doomed to go nowhere, is noteworthy. It's also living proof of Democrats' claims — and GOP worries — that it may be impossible to repeal the ACA now that millions of people have gotten benefits for a few years. That's a potential bad omen for Trump if he wins control of the White House amid a promise of repeal.

Dold in an interview said his constituents used to bring up "Obamacare" often. But now, if the subject of health care comes up at all, people are more likely to focus on what Congress is going to do about rising premiums or narrow insurance networks that limit choices of doctors, he said. Critics blame those problem on the ACA but ordinary voters don't always do so.

Of course, in an unpredictable political year, that could change, especially in states that see big insurance rate increases and competitive House or Senate races.

But for now, scenarios similar to Dold’s are playing out around the country. Obamacare just doesn't have the red-meat fire power it once had, according to a well-placed Republican strategist who didn't want to be identified to speak candidly. Constituents in more moderate districts have already baked it into the political equation, and are focusing more on national security and the economy.

Plus, President Barack Obama — so closely associated with "Obamacare"— is leaving office and some of the animosity may fade.

"I've seen [candidates] talk about it here or there but it's not dominating what they're talking about in the districts," the strategist said. "This is definitely an unpopular law, but when you have the violence going on in the Middle East, it is going to take precedence over a flawed law that people are frustrated with."

The political shift also kicked in after more voters started feeling the benefits of the law — the insurance exchanges and subsidies that went into effect in 2014. Republicans now have to answer for the millions of Americans who would lose those benefits if the law were actually repealed.

"When I ran, I said I'm not going to vote for repeal of Obamacare unless there is a replacement or repeal and replace," said Katko, another freshman Republican whose seat in upstate New York Democrats hope to pick up this fall. "There wasn't [a replacement] and I'm not going to beat my head."

That doesn't mean Katko wouldn't vote to repeal the law someday if he had something else to offer voters back home.

"What's nice is it looks like there is a replacement on the horizon with the new proposals from [House Speaker Paul] Ryan," he said. "If the vote comes up again, if I see this as a replacement, that might be different."

Poliquin struck a slightly different note. He faced significant backlash at home after he opposed the repeal vote early last year as a freshman lawmaker. When it came up this year as part of a budget bill, he did support repeal because by then, some alternatives had been presented, and there would be a manageable transition before the ACA would be repealed, said his spokesman Brent Littlefield.

"He always said that we need to replace and fix the Obamacare system with a better, free market alternative," Littlefield said.

In the Senate, meanwhile, centrist Republican Sens. Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins also opposed repeal of huge pieces of the law, although some of that opposition was related to a provision to cut Planned Parenthood funds.

Even lawmakers who say they are still committed to repeal just aren't talking about it as much.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson won his Senate seat in 2010 railing against the law and crusaded to block a piece of it in court. Although he is now trailing in the polls against a former Democratic senator who backs the law, he isn't making the Affordable Care Act a dominant campaign theme. Still, that state’s dynamic could change before Election Day if Republicans look to score political points off big Obamacare rate hikes slated for this fall.

Paul Demko contributed to this report.