(WASHINGTON) — Just 10 days into his congressional career, Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer broke with his party and voted with nine other Republicans and every Democrat in the House to impeach President Donald Trump over the Capitol riot.

Now, just days before his primary, Meijer is under pressure from a major Democratic group, which is spending $500,000 to spotlight John Gibbs, his pro-Trump, election-denying opponent.

Airing in Western Michigan this week, the 30-second ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Democrats’ campaign wing, describes Gibbs, who worked in the Trump administration, as “too conservative” for the region and Trump’s “hand-picked” candidate.

While the DCCC’s messaging is negative, the ad pulls focus from Meijer and underscores Gibbs’ conservative credentials shortly before voters have their say.

At a time when Democrats are warning voters that election-denying Republicans pose an existential threat to democracy, the party’s role in a messy GOP primary has left multiple Democratic lawmakers angry and frustrated.

“There’s always a danger of unintended consequences, and I certainly would have taken a different approach,” Colorado Rep. Jason Crow told ABC News on Wednesday. “We should play our game on our terms, and I don’t think approaches like that are usually productive.”

“I thought it was a strange choice, and I called [the DCCC] and let them know,” Michigan Rep. Elisa Slotkin told ABC News.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., a retiring moderate who also voted to impeach Trump, called the Democratic strategy “outrageous” and pointed to Meijer’s votes across party lines on impeachment and to protect same-sex marriage rights.

“Peter’s been a strong independent voice, and he’s put the country first on a number of issues,” Upton told ABC News. “He’s not a rubber stamp.”

New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the DCCC, defended the party’s efforts on Wednesday. He argued that the ad was “telling the truth about John Gibbs being a dangerous extremist” and that Democratic candidate Hillary Scholten — who will face either Gibbs or Meijer — would “put people over politics” if elected to serve in the House.

In a brief interview in Washington on Wednesday, Meijer accused Democrats of putting “party interest” first.

“Everything they’re saying in the Jan. 6 committee, everything about how my party is a threat to democracy — and they are investing a half-million dollars to elevate and boost exactly the same thing that they’re railing against?” he said.

“It’s pretty galling in the hypocrisy of it all. And just shameless given their high-minded rhetoric about how they are the party of democracy. Spare me that bull—,” Meijer said.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a retiring member of the House Jan. 6 committee, called the strategy “disgusting” in an interview with CNN, warning that it would help “election deniers win.”

Gibbs, who served in the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump, was unsuccessfully nominated to lead the Office of Personnel Management but faced criticism in the Senate over past comments and tweets, including speaking dismissively of Islam and promoting a conspiracy theory involving Democrats. (Gibbs said at the time that “I don’t really see anything to apologize for. I was a commentator.” At his confirmation hearing, he insisted, “In my service in the government … I’ve always treated people fairly.”)

Democrats aren’t just focusing on the right-wing candidate in Meijer’s race. The party has tried to influence GOP primaries across the country — where nominating more conservative options could create more favorable matchups in November and maintain their slim House and Senate majorities.

In California, an outside political group affiliated with House Democratic leaders tried spotlighting a pro-Trump Republican running against Rep. David Valadao, another one of the 10 GOP members who voted to impeach Trump. (Valadao survived his primary two weeks ago and advanced to the general election through California’s top-two system.)

In Colorado, the Democratic leadership-aligned Senate Majority PAC spent millions ahead of the primary last month to portray Joe O’Dea, a Republican seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, as a moderate compared to the more conservative Ron Hanks — which was ultimately unsuccessful. O’Dea said Democrats were “propping up Ron Hanks in a desperate attempt to save” Bennet in November.

And Democrats in Pennsylvania, ahead of the state’s GOP primary in early June, elevated Doug Mastriano, who was linked to Trump’s effort to challenge the 2020 election and the Capitol attack. (Mastriano was at the Capitol that day but insists he left because of the violence.) He will face Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro in November.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., tweeted this week that he was “disgusted” that the DCCC has been using its funds — including membership dues paid by lawmakers — to “boost Trump-endorsed candidates, particularly the far-right opponent of one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress.”

Helen Kalla, a spokesperson for the DCCC, told ABC News the group was “laser focused on holding the House majority, which we will accomplish by fighting for every competitive seat.”

“[Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy is an anti-choice insurrectionist coddler and conspiracy enabler, and we will do what it takes to keep the speaker’s gavel out of his hands,” Kalla said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Following a surprise announcement Wednesday that he and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal on a major spending package — reviving Democrats’ hopes of addressing health care and climate — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with his caucus behind closed doors on Thursday morning.

Schumer urged fellow Democrats to stay united to get the Inflation Reduction Act across the finish line via reconciliation before the chamber breaks next week for their August recess. The proposal would expand health care subsidies; allow Medicare to negotiate on prescription drugs; spend nearly $400 billion on climate and energy policies and raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

“It will require us to stick together and work long days and nights for the next 10 days,” Schumer said, according to a Democrat in the room. “We will need to be disciplined in our messaging and focus. It will be hard. But I believe we can get this done.”

Democrats’ proposed climate, tax and health care bill had been in limbo after Manchin, one of the most conservative Democrats in the 50-50 Senate, said earlier this month that he was opposed to additional spending on climate policies or tax changes as the country faces historically high inflation.

But in an apparent reversal, Manchin said Wednesday that he and Schumer had reached an agreement after “months of negotiation.”

President Joe Biden applauded their “historic agreement” in remarks delivered at the White House on Thursday, despite the fact that it doesn’t include everything he’s called for in such a package. (At several trillion dollars, Biden’s original American Families Plan was a far more sweeping social spending proposal.)

Biden said Manchin and Schumer’s agreement was also major.

“Simply put, the bill will lower health care costs for millions of Americans and it will be the most important investment — not a hyperbole — the most important investment that we’ve ever made in our energy security,” he said.

If passed, the spending package would be a notable victory for Biden and Democrats heading into the fall midterm elections.

But Manchin said Thursday that Biden had little to do with the deal, telling a local radio show that it was only hammered out between him and Schumer.

“President Biden was not involved,” Manchin said. “I was not going to bring the president in. I didn’t think it was fair to bring him in. And this thing could very well could not have happened at all. It could have absolutely gone sideways.”

Biden on Thursday thanked Schumer and Manchin specifically for the “extraordinary effort that it took to reach this result.”

What’s in the bill?

The 725-page bill, as currently written, would invest approximately $300 billion in deficit reduction and $369.75 billion in energy security and climate change programs over the next decade.

According to Schumer and Manchin, the bill “lowers energy costs, increases cleaner production, and reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.”

There are incentives for Americans to invest in clean energy, with tax incentives for energy efficiency improvements for their homes. There are also tax credits for individuals who buy electric vehicles.

The bill would continue pandemic-era expansions to Affordable Care Act subsidies through 2025 and allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower drug costs, which has long been a Democratic goal. Under the bill, drug manufacturers would be penalized for raising prices faster than inflation.

Medicare drug negotiation would begin in 2026 with 10 of the most expensive drugs eligible for negotiation. That number would increase to 15 drugs in 2027 and to 20 drugs by 2029.

The Inflation Reduction Act would be paid for implementing a 15% corporate minimum tax as well as collecting more through IRS tax enforcement, Democrats said. The legislation includes billions of dollars for taxpayer services, enforcement and modernization of the agency.

Manchin on how the deal came together

Manchin was pressed by West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval on Thursday on why he changed course to go through with this bill, including the climate provisions, and despite a lengthy explanation and defense that the legislation will not be inflationary, he couldn’t explain the seeming about-face.

Manchin said Schumer was “mad” when he first paused the deal a few weeks ago, but he insisted he never “walked away” from negotiations.

After originally saying this month that he wanted to wait until the next set of economic data was released in August before moving forward on any legislation, Manchin said in his radio appearance Thursday that he directed his staff to scrub the bill down so there “can’t be one thing that you can say caused inflation.”

Still, he said he’s anticipating being criticized by Republicans over the 15% minimum corporate tax.

“Why is anybody or any corporation upset by not paying 15? So yes, I’m anxious to find out who they are,” he said. “Come forward.”

Some Republicans were also quick to criticize Manchin’s changing position, which they said left them in the lurch — having supported a separate computer chips bill when they thought the Democratic spending plan was dead.

What happens next

Democrats hope to use a fast-track process known as reconciliation that will allow the legislation to pass by a simple majority vote.

In the evenly divided Senate, Democrats need their entire caucus — including Vermont independent Bernie Sanders, who has vocally criticized Manchin, and Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who like Manchin has bucked other party priorities — to back the bill with Vice President Kamala Harris then breaking a tie.

The party also needs their members to stay healthy enough to vote in-person before the recess. There is no proxy voting in the chamber, as there is in the House.

Manchin is currently recovering from COVID-19 and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin announced Thursday, hours after the spending deal was released, that he too had tested positive for the virus and will isolate following federal guidelines.

Schumer told Senate Democrats on Thursday that they have the opportunity to get the legislation passed before the August recess — just days away.

“When we were in the minority for many years before this Congress, we talked often as a caucus about what we would do if we got the majority back,” he said, according to a Democrat in the room.

“We have now been in the longest 50-50 Senate in history,” he said. “It has been a wild ride and there have been many ups and downs.”

– ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

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