Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — As the Senate prepared to vote on President Trump’s nominee for education secretary on Tuesday, Senate Democrats began their last-ditch effort to convince one more Republican to vote against her — a move that would block her confirmation.
Led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the Senate committee charged with overseeing DeVos’ confirmation, the minority party began what they said would be a 24-hour period of floor speeches against Betsy DeVos, a Michigan advocate of charter schools and school vouchers.
The goal of the talk-a-thon, Murray said, was convincing one more of the 52-member Senate Republican conference to vote against DeVos. Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both Republicans, have already announced their no votes, which brings the Republicans down to a maximum of 50 members.
Vice President Mike Pence has already agreed to use his authority as the president of the Senate to cast a tie-breaking 51st vote in favor of DeVos, but Democrats insisted they would try to siphon off one additional Republican to shift the balance in their favor.
Democrats are also taking advantage of the last available tactic they have to delay the vote on DeVos. For procedural reasons, the earliest the Senate can vote on her confirmation is Tuesday at noon, unless all 100 senators agree before then to move the vote up. Because that won’t happen, Democrats can eat up the intervening hours until the DeVos vote by railing against her on the Senate floor.
DeVos’ nomination has also incited above-average negative reaction from everyday voters, who have flooded Senate phone lines and email addresses in recent weeks. The office of Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) said Friday he had received more than 80,000 letters and emails urging him to vote no on DeVos’ confirmation.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Murray encouraged activists who have already called or emailed their senator to keep the pressure up until the vote itself, which is scheduled for noon Tuesday.
“Double down on your advocacy. Keep making your voices heard for these last 24 hours,” she said.
The air wars also heated up over the weekend — the last before her vote — on both sides of the aisle, with one pro-DeVos group airing a TV ad calling liberals “full of rage and hate” for opposing DeVos, and with the left-leaning American Bridge releasing a video replaying a moment from DeVos’s hearing that went viral, when she defended the use of guns in schools by pointing to a Wyoming school that had a gun to protect against “potential grizzlies.”
Opponents of DeVos cite her lack of experience in the public education field, having never attended nor worked at a public school herself, and her support of conservative-leaning education measures like vouchers that parents can apply towards paying for the school of their choice, which opponents say draws resources from public schools.
An aide for the Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, on which Murray and chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., sit, said he expects more than 30 Democrats to speak between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, and that the number could grow.
For his part, Alexander has maintained that DeVos has the votes to be confirmed.
“Mrs. DeVos will be an excellent education secretary. She has a commitment to public education,” he said during a floor speech Friday as the Senate held a procedural vote on her nomination.
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