“We have roughly 400,000 SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] recipients in Minnesota. These are people that are most in need. What happens when they don’t have benefits?” Emmer told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview Wednesday. “We can’t have this tragic result happen.”

“First 26, 27 days [of the shutdown], Democrats have been able to get away with this nonsense, because most people in this country haven’t noticed, because they haven’t been impacted,” Emmer continued. “That’s changing this week.”

California Army National Guard members sort apples to be packed into food boxes at the LA Regional Food Bank on October 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. States across the country are preparing to assist residents who will lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to the ongoing shutdown. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Though Democrats have thus far refused to blink in the shutdown standoff, Emmer believes the prospect of 1 in 8 Americans going hungry could hasten a resolution to the ongoing funding lapse. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees, some of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck, have also not received their salaries during the shutdown.

“The game changer should be putting low-income Americans and in particular — children — in danger of not having food,” Emmer told the DCNF. “That should be the game changer.”

However, the Minnesota Republican also said that growing disruptions to air travel could force Democrats to retreat from their hardball tactics.

Fourteen thousand air traffic controllers missed their first full paycheck of the shutdown on Tuesday and some are turning to second jobs to make ends meet while the funding lapse drags on.

The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed ground stops at several major hubs across the country due to staffing issues — and the problem could get worse as controllers’ financial stress deepens.