Professor McDaniel: GOP Senators Have Been Talking about Supreme Court Seat for Decades

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — All indications are that President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will move ahead with a Supreme Court nominee. So the first question is: what if they succeed?

“Republican senators, this is the most important thing,” said San Francisco State University political science professor Jason McDaniel. “They’ve been talking about this for decades.”

McDaniel believes there is very little doubt McConnell will take his shot. The big questions now surround the math in the U.S. Senate.

“He’s got a three-vote majority,” McDaniel explained. “He can lose three votes, Murkowski, Collins, Romney, Gardner, something like that, Thom Tillis. He can lose three of those and still get a vote because this can’t be filibustered.”

Then there’s Arizona’s special election for the seat once held by John McCain. If Democrat Mark Kelly wins, he could be seated as soon as the vote is finalized.

“And he’s way ahead right now,” McDaniel said. “So that means if he wins that race and they try to do it in the lame duck session, that might lower McConnell’s math to only a two-seat majority.”

Read the entire story on the CBS SF Bay Area website.