Central College Political Science Professor Andrew Green believes the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Nominee Brett Michael Kavanaugh will come down to a few key senators when the process begins.
Green tells KNIA/KRLS News it wasn’t that long ago that the majority Supreme Court nominees–regardless of partisan lean, were confirmed by large supermajority votes, but the practice has largely gone away after Mitch McConnell refused a vote on Merrick Garland and after the elimination of the filibuster rule for Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Green says the vote on Kavanaugh, a nominee of President Trump, will likely come down to two key Republican Senators and Democrats running for reelection in states Trump won in 2016.
“What you’re going to see is if no Republican defects, you will see those three or four swing state Democrats vote for the nominee,” he says. “If there’s the chance that a Republican like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, if there’s a chance that one of those two senators or another Republican is going to defect, that is going to put an awful lot of pressure on those four swing state Democrats to vote with the party against the nominee.”
“My guess is that you are going to see a nomination that fails by a vote or two, or it’s going to pass by three or four votes.”