U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado was one of six Republicans who defected from his party Thursday, voting to end the shutdown without giving President Donald Trump a dollar in new funding for a border wall.

The bill, which would have reopened government for three weeks in the hopes of reaching a compromise on border security, failed, as did a competing Republican proposal to reopen government and give Trump $5.7 billion for a border wall.

Gardner voted yes on both bills, saying he supports any way to reopen the government as federal employees brace for a second missed paycheck Friday.

“It’s not that difficult. It shouldn’t be a challenge to govern responsibly,” Gardner said in a floor speech after both bills failed. “I hope this chamber will come to its senses along with our House colleagues and the White House.”

Despite the failed votes in the Senate, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, said Thursday he remains optimistic that the shutdown could come to an end sooner rather than later. He told The Denver Post his party’s leadership asked him not to fly home Thursday evening.

“It’s been difficult, but I do see some movement,” Perlmutter said.

The Senate vote was 50-47 for the Republican plan and 52-44 for the Democratic one. They each required 60 votes to pass.

Gardner’s decision to support both bills comes as he faces a difficult re-election in 2020. Colorado’s unaffiliated voters joined Democrats in rejecting the Republican Party across the board at the statewide level in 2018.

But the senator said on the Senate floor Thursday that his opposition to government shutdowns has been consistent since his first took office in 2014.

“We ought to make it very clear that this simply not acceptable,” Gardner said.

He also tried to push his own bill to appropriate the dollars needed to pay federal employees during the shutdown. It didn’t pass, but a plea from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to support a similar bill that would have just paid the U.S. Coast Guard drew the ire of Colorado’s other senator, Democrat Michael Bennet.

Bennet, who voted for his party’s bill Thursday, shouted from the Senate floor, accusing Cruz of faking his concern for members of the Coast Guard who are serving without pay. He said Cruz pushed for a 2013 government shutdown during the aftermath of a deadly flood in Colorado.

Bennet’s decision to mix it up with Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate who narrowly won re-election last year, comes amid talk that Bennet might run for the Democratic nomination this time around. He confirmed to NBC’s Chuck Todd on Thursday that he’s thinking about it.

The Associated Press contributed.