Orono, Maine
Moderate Republican senators such as Susan Collins, of Maine, the most closely watched GOP swing vote, are sending strong signals that they will back Kavanaugh. Several Democrats facing difficult reelections this year have indicated they are open to voting for the judge. And leaders of the resistance are already delivering post-mortem assessments and blaming fellow Democrats for a looming failure.
Barring a major revelation, the Senate is poised to install the 53-year-old Kavanaugh on the high court and take the next step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s pledge to remake the Supreme Court — and the wider federal judiciary, potentially for decades.
“There were too many Democrats who decided out of the gate that this was an unwinnable fight,” said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a leading anti-Kavanaugh group that will continue to battle the nomination.
The fizzling of the campaign to block Kavanaugh underscores the relative weakness of the Democrats, who had promised their political base a pitched battle to protect the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling and other liberal causes. From the moment Trump introduced Kavanaugh to the nation at a prime-time White House ceremony, Democratic leaders sought to portray the would-be justice as a far-right ideologue and targeted a handful of senators in both parties seen as persuadable.
But Democrats are likely to watch helplessly as the Senate confirms Trump’s second Supreme Court pick after Justice Neil Gorsuch. In addition, Republicans have pushed through 24 circuit court judges, a record number for a president in his first two years in office, and two more are in the queue when the Senate returns next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who sees a conservative judiciary as the legacy of the GOP’s grip on all levers of government, spoke confidently on Friday about Kavanaugh’s prospects.
“He’ll get confirmed. It won’t be a landslide, but he’ll get confirmed,” McConnell told WKDZ radio in Cadiz, Ky.