--- title: Dean Heller: GOP Senator Under Fire in 2018 description: Democrats will attack Dean Heller and Jeff Flake for their votes canonical: https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/ author: Jack Brewster article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-28T23:53:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:46:40.459Z article:section: Politics og:title: Vulnerable GOP Senators May Pay A Price For Obamacare Vote og:description: Democrats will attack Dean Heller and Jeff Flake for their votes og:url: https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05a086aacea63aa/6988d79c7cdbac133bd59674/jeff-flake-dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4532 og:image:height: 2549 og:image:alt: Senate Luncheons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vulnerable GOP Senators May Pay A Price For Obamacare Vote twitter:description: Democrats will attack Dean Heller and Jeff Flake for their votes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05a086aacea63aa/6988d79c7cdbac133bd59674/jeff-flake-dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vulnerable GOP Senators May Pay A Price For Obamacare Vote > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jul 28, 2017 11:53 PM UTC  Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., left, and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., talk after the Senate policy luncheons in the Capitol on February 24, 2015. Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., left, and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., talk after the Senate policy luncheons in the Capitol on February 24, 2015. Tom Williams—CQ Roll Call/AP by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jul 28, 2017 11:53 PM UTC Some Republican senators who voted for Obamacare repeal legislation could regret it down the road. Early Friday morning, [the Senate voted down a last-ditch effort](http://time.com/4877796/health-care-senate-john-mccain-susan-collins-lisa-murkowski/?xid=homepage) by Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare, [delivering a blow](http://time.com/4878468/republican-health-care-vote-failure-blame/?xid=homepage) to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of a party that promised for seven years to repeal the legislation. But the members who may pay the highest price are Republican senators in battleground states who supported the bill and are up for re-election next year. Take Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, one of 49 Republicans to [ vote in favor](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-votes-repeal-obamacare.html) of the so-called “skinny repeal” proposal on Friday. Heller is the lone GOP senator up for re-election in a state Hillary Clinton won in 2016\. He’s now on the record voting for an[ extremely unpopular](http://time.com/4836700/senate-health-care-bill-poll-disapproval/) bill that could have resulted in millions of Americans losing their insurance. Democrats will try to ensure that he pays for that vote. [Priorities USA](http://www.prioritiesusaaction.org), the powerhouse Democratic super PAC, has already released an online ad targeting Heller for his health care position. > [](https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/890310152124907520) “That’ll continue,” Patrick McHugh, the executive director of Priorities USA, said about the attack ad against Heller. “I think you’ll see advertising and communications educating voters \[about who\] voted for Trumpcare from now until Election Day. I don’t think it’s gonna stop.” Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat running for Heller’s seat next year, slammed the senator for the vote. “No politician from our state has ever been more dishonest about their intentions, more misleading about their position or more disingenuous to their constituents,” [Rosen said in a statement](http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/344323-dem-senate-candidate-slams-heller-over-healthcare-vote). “This was the biggest broken political promise in modern Nevada history.” In the weeks leading up to the healthcare vote, Heller—who waffled over the bill—was pressured by both wings of the Republican Party. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican with [high approval ratings](https://morningconsult.com/governor-rankings-april-2017/), [urged him not to support](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/us/politics/senator-dean-heller-affordable-care-act.html) a bill that would gut Medicaid and decrease the number of insured. Meanwhile, pro-Trump Republicans were pressuring Heller to back an Obamacare replacement. [America First Policies](https://www.americafirstpolicies.org), a non-profit group that promotes the administration’s positions, launched [an attack](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/america-first-policies-dean-heller-trump-health-care-240009) against Heller. (The group later[ pulled the ads](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/heller-obamacare-trump-health-care-240025).) Heller, who [barely won](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2012/results/states/nevada.html) in 2012, may be the most vulnerable GOP candidate in a year when the Senate map looks [very good](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-the-2018-senate-elections-are-looking-bad-for-both-parties/) for the party. But he’s not the only one. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona cast votes for the motion to proceed and [all three GOP](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-votes-repeal-obamacare.html) plans. Flake is on shaky ground back home: according to a [Morning Consult poll](https://morningconsult.com/july-2017-senator-rankings/) released in July, just 37% of registered Arizona voters approve of the senator. Several Democratic challengers have emerged as possible candidates to run against Flake, including Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, [according to the New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/jeff-flake-gop-trump-book.html?%5Fr=0). And Flake’s votes may be a liability in the race. [According to a poll released on Thursday](https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2017/07/27/arizona-polltrump-approval-at-47-support-for-gop.html), just 6% of Arizona voters backed the Senate’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. > [](https://twitter.com/MayorStanton/status/890974638699720704) McHugh, the spokesman for Priorities USA, said the group would hold Heller and Flake accountable for their votes. “Now we have them on the record in support of a replacement plan,” he said, that polls show is “politically toxic.” Spokesmen for Heller and Flake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/"},"headline":"Vulnerable GOP Senators May Pay A Price For Obamacare Vote","datePublished":"2017-07-28T23:53:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:46:40.459Z","description":"Democrats will attack Dean Heller and Jeff Flake for their votes","url":"https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/","keywords":["Senate","Congress","Healthcare","Jeff Flake"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05a086aacea63aa/6988d79c7cdbac133bd59674/jeff-flake-dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Brewster","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb05a086aacea63aa/6988d79c7cdbac133bd59674/jeff-flake-dean-heller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Luncheons","caption":"Senate Luncheons","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ Roll Call/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4878060/obamacare-heller-flake/","name":"Vulnerable GOP Senators May Pay A Price For Obamacare Vote"}}]}] ```