In an interview on Wednesday, Sen. Dean Heller said he is satisfied with how he has handled the grueling health care debate. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Heller defends health care vote amid Democratic attacks

Democrats are escalating their attacks on Nevada GOP Sen. Dean Heller for voting to open debate on Obamacare repeal and signaling support for a trimmed-down repeal bill. But Heller, who faces a tough reelection contest next year, says he is at peace with his decisions.

Senate Democrats’ campaign arm is already running radio ads against Heller for trying to “save his political career” for voting to consider Obamacare repeal on Tuesday after taking a hard line against GOP leadership’s previous plans to repeal and replace the law. And Democrats are mulling expanding their ad campaign against Heller now that he is indicating he may support a scaled back bill to gut the law aimed at getting into bicameral negotiations with the House and Senate, a strategist said.


In an interview on Wednesday, Heller said he is satisfied with how he has handled the grueling health care debate, which includes standing with Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-Nev.) to lash proposed cuts to Medicaid, getting needled by President Donald Trump in front of other colleagues and then aiding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in moving forward on the repeal effort.

“As long as [Medicaid] is out of the conversation. If it’s in the conversation, it’s not good for the state,” Heller said. Asked if he was feeling the heat back home, he said: “Not necessarily. I mean everybody has an opinion. But at this point I’m pretty satisfied with the way things are going.”

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Heller voted against McConnell’s preferred repeal-and-replace bill on Tuesday night and will vote against a repeal-only bill on Wednesday. But that won’t stop Democrats for hitting him hard over his preliminary support for supporting elimination of Obamacare’s individual and employer mandates as well as its medical device tax.

JB Poersch, president of the Democratic group Senate Majority PAC, said Heller "folded to political pressure, clearing a path to take health care away from tens of thousands of Nevadans." Senate Majority PAC has already run radio and digital ads attacking Heller and is expected to return to the airwaves soon, the group said.

Lauren Passalacqua, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said that Heller’s support for that bill will “make health care more expensive for Nevadans.”

“His clumsy handling of the issue shows he now realizes it’s an election year problem and even if he’s temporarily spared himself from a round of angry presidential tweets, he now has to face voters,” she said.

"I thought his initial position was gutsy and clear. I don't understand his position now," said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that Democrats "are desperate to pin the failures of Obamacare on someone other than themselves.

"Instead of working with Republicans to fix the Obamacare mess, Senate Democrats continue to engage in partisan attacks," Martin said.

Privately, top Republican strategists say it is politically better for him to align himself with Republicans looking to gut the law so he can help contain conservative angst in his state and keep the GOP base behind him in the general election next year, when he is expected to face Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). They point to former Nevada Rep. Joe Heck's denouncement of Trump last year and his loss in a Senate race as evidence of what happens to Republicans that cross their base.

But Heller is wary of anything that smacks of aligning himself with reductions in Medicaid spending and ending Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. He said he’s worried that House Republicans will try to drag Medicaid back into the conversation if the two chambers enter into a conference committee over their disagreeing bills. The House bill would unwind Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and calls for hundreds of billions in cuts to the program.

“Medicaid expansion has worked for the state of Nevada. So the skinny bill leaves entitlement reforms out of the bill. I’ve always said I’m for health care reform, I’m not for entitlement reform,” Heller said. “I’m worried about the [House]. I don’t have any answer for that.”

Heller’s Democratic colleagues have largely declined to attack him by name for joining with Republicans this week on opening debate and pushing forward on a slimmed-down repeal effort. That’s a rarity given that Heller’s race is the best chance for Democrats to pick up a seat next year while they defend 10 seats in Trump country. But Democratic senators say any Republican that supports the GOP’s latest plan will pay a political price.

“The skinny bill is garbage in its own right. And the only reason people aren’t fully aware of it is because they just sprung it on us. It will trash the individual market,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). “They can survive a news cycle. But they will own whatever law is enacted.”