Over the objections of Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Antony Blinken won the blessing of the Senate in 2014 as second-in-command at the Department of State under then-President Barack Obama.
Six years later, if Blinken is to become the top diplomat in the country under Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, it looks like he'll need to buck Rubio once again.
Biden's transition team on Monday announced that the former vice president intends to nominate Blinken for the role of secretary of state, a position that requires confirmation by a simple-majority vote of the U.S. Senate. In 2014, when Democrats held the Senate, Blinken was confirmed as deputy secretary of state by a 55-38 vote that largely followed party lines.
