WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court will need Republican support to receive Senate confirmation, a leading Democratic lawmaker said Friday.
Democrats are down to 49 votes in the chamber, following the hospitalization of New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Lujan. Lujan had a stroke, his office said in a statement.
Congressman Jim Clyburn, the chief Democratic vote counter in the House of Representatives, told McClatchy in an interview on Friday that Lujan’s absence means that Republican votes will be needed to muscle Biden’s soon-to-be named Supreme Court nominee through the Senate.