Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Sunday that she would not support a vote to name a successor to Justice Ruth Bader Ginburg’s Supreme Court seat before the election.
“For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed. I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia. We are now even closer ot the 2020 election–less than two months out–and I believe the same standard should apply.”
Murkowski is the second Republican senator to say she does not support a vote for a nominee before the election. On Saturday Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she won’t vote for Trump’s nominee out of “fairness to the American people.”
In order to stop the nomination, Democrats need four Republican senators to defect. With Murkowski and Collins agreeing not to move ahead with the vote, all eyes now turn to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee Chuck Grassley.
