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The majority of Democrats in the U.S. Senate voted on Thursday night to advance the nomination of former Rep. Doug Collins, who in December 2020 signed an amicus brief seeking to invalidate former Joe Biden’s victory the month before.
By a vote of 83-13, the Senate surpassed the 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture to end debate and advance President Donald Trump’s nominee as Secretary of Veterans Affairs to a straight up or down vote.
As an outgoing member of the House of Representatives in December 2020, Collins and 125 other Republicans in the lower chamber signed an amicus brief in a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sought to invalidate the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, determining that Texas lacked standing to challenge other states’ election results.
Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at the attempts by Trump and scores of Republicans – including Collins – to try to overturn the results over baseless claims of voter fraud. But on Thursday night, 31 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate voted to move Collins’ nomination forward:
Tammy Baldwin (WI)
Michael Bennet (CO)
Richard Blumenthal (CT)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE)
Maria Cantwell (WA)
Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
Tammy Duckworth (IL)
Dick Durbin (IL)
Ruben Gallego (AZ)
Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
Maggie Hassan (NH)
Martin Heinrich (NM)
John Hickenlooper (CO)
Tim Kaine (VA)
Mark Kelly (AZ)
Andy Kim (NJ)
Angus King (ME, Independent, caucuses with the Democrats)
Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Ben Ray Luján (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Gary Peters (MI)
Jack Reed (RI)
Jacky Rosen (NV)
Bernie Sanders (VT, caucuses with the Democrats)
Adam Schiff (CA)
Jeanne Shaheen (NH)
Elissa Slotkin (MI)
Mark Warner (VA)
Raphael Warnock (GA)
Peter Welch (VT)
Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Just 13 Democrats voted against Collins’ nomination:
Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Ed Markey (D-MA)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Alex Padilla (D-CA)
Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Tina Smith (D-MN)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Democratic Sens. Cory Booker (NJ), John Fetterman (PA), and Jon Ossoff (GA) did not vote.
Upon the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, Collins tweeted, “RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws. With @realDonaldTrump nominating a replacement that values human life, generations of unborn children have a chance to live.”
