These 12 Senate Democrats voted for the Laken Riley Act

Twelve Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Monday to pass a bill on immigration, a topic that has faced congressional gridlock for years, to address one of President Donald Trump’s top campaign issues just hours after he was sworn in for a second term.

The legislation, known as the Laken Riley Act and named for a 22-year-old woman who was murdered last year while jogging at the University of Georgia, would allow for stricter punishments of undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the United States.

The measure now goes to the House, which approved a previous version of the legislation earlier this month, with 48 House Democrats joining Republicans to vote in favor. Senate Democrats overwhelmingly voted to begin debate on the bill on Jan. 9, and 10 of them voted on Friday to advance the amended measure.

Here’s a look at the dozen Democrats who voted for the bill, most of whom hail from swing states. Some were just elected to the Senate last fall, while others are set to face tough reelection races next year.

Catherine Cortez Masto

Cortez Masto represents Nevada, a swing state that Trump won by 3 points last fall — the first Republican presidential nominee to do so since George W. Bush in 2004. “Anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable,” Cortez-Masto said Monday on social media. “Nevadans want solutions that keep their families safe, and I will continue to work across the aisle to deliver for our state.”

John Fetterman

The Pennsylvania Democrat co-sponsored the measure, which was led by his friend, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. Fetterman, who didn’t vote Friday on the procedural motion, recently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, with the president later describing the Democratic senator to the Washington Examiner as a “commonsense person.” November’s presidential election saw Pennsylvania voters back Trump for the second time, giving him a 2-point win over Kamala Harris.

Ruben Gallego

The freshman senator from Arizona, another co-sponsor of the legislation, voted for a version of the bill last year when he was a Phoenix-area congressman. “We must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law, to prevent situations like what occurred to Laken Riley,” the Democrat said in a Jan. 8 statement. While Arizona narrowly backed Joe Biden in 2020, the state swung toward Trump last fall, backing him by more than 5 points.

Maggie Hassan

The New Hampshire Democrat sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and made a visit to the southern border in 2022, the last time she was up for reelection. “Making it easier to remove undocumented immigrants who commit crimes from our country is a basic first step that Congress can take, but we cannot stop here,” she said in a statement earlier this month. The Granite State narrowly backed Kamala Harris last year, though Trump significantly cut into the Democratic winning margin.

Mark Kelly

Arizona’s senior senator said he supported the measure “because federal authorities need to protect our communities from criminals.” Kelly is not up for reelection until 2028.

Jon Ossoff

Ossoff is among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection next year and represents the state where Riley was murdered. Like Arizona, Georgia also flipped in last fall’s presidential election, backing Trump by 2 points four years after voters there had given Biden a narrow win and elected Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a pair of run-off elections.

Gary Peters

The ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and former chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is also up for reelection next year in Michigan, a state Trump won in November. It was the second time Trump won the Wolverine State, which was seen as a key part of Democrats’ “blue wall” of must-win states.

Jacky Rosen

The Nevada Democrat narrowly won reelection last year while Trump was carrying the premier swing state out West.

Jeanne Shaheen

The new top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Shaheen up for a fourth term in 2026, although she hasn’t announced whether she plans to run again. Earlier this month, after a vote to advance the legislation, the New Hampshire Democrat said she’d “long called for Congress to do more to address our nation’s broken immigration system.”

Elissa Slotkin

The newly sworn-in senator from Michigan voted for the bill when it came up in the House last year. She said this month that the nation “must get past petty partisanship that continues to dominate the immigration debate.”

Mark Warner

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is up for a fourth term next year. Virginia has voted blue in federal elections for the past two decades, but since Warner’s last election, the commonwealth backed Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor in 2021 and Trump in November cut into his losing presidential margin from four years earlier.

Raphael Warnock

The Georgia Democrat didn’t support a Friday procedural motion to move forward on the immigration measure, but he voted Monday to pass it. In a statement, Warnock said the bill wasn’t what he would have written, but added: “I hope today’s vote is a genuine step toward true bipartisan cooperation to secure and strengthen resources at our southern border, smooth our asylum processes, and find a dignified solution for the scores of law-abiding undocumented Georgians working on our farms and in our communities.”