Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s spectacularly unqualified, public education-hating education secretary nominee, could become Trump’s first pick to be voted down if just one more Republican senator flips. Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski have said they’ll vote no, bringing the vote to 50-50 and forcing a vice presidential tie-breaking vote, which means it’s time to flood other possible “no” votes with calls.
Don’t give Collins or Murkowski too much credit for principle or courage here, though. They voted DeVos out of committee, and:
Republicans said privately that Collins and Murkowski waited to announce their opposition once the rest of the votes for DeVos were locked up. They said the rest of the GOP is firmly behind DeVos.
That’s typical of how so-called moderate Republicans work (unlike conservative Democrats, who really do screw their party).
The report that the votes are locked up doesn’t mean give up, though. It means that we need enough calls to change someone’s mind—or, if not to change their mind, to change their cost-benefit calculation. Let them know that a vote for DeVos will cost them popular support, and that her attacks on public education and her gaffes alike will be hung around their necks. However much the fix was in, Murkowski cited all the calls her office got as a deciding factor in her opposition to DeVos. Give Deb Fischer (Nebraska) and Jerry Moran (Kansas) and Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) and Rob Portman (Ohio) and Dean Heller (Nevada) and Jeff Flake (Arizona) reason to stop and think about whether DeVos is worth it. Even if your Republican senator isn’t on that list of potential targets, give them a call.