Politics
JUST IN: Odds Of Key Trump Nominee’s Confirmation Surge To 97 Percent
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) — who voted against Pete Hegseth’s confirmation and was widely seen as a potential holdout in the vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary — announced that she will be supporting the former presidential candidate’s nomination.
Collins — one of three GOP senators who was seen as a potential hurdle to RFK Jr.’s confirmation — told CNN’s Manu Raja that she will be voting to confirm. The moderate Republican told Raju that Kennedy did enough to address some of the concerns she had and told her he would “re-examine” the White House’s National Institute of Health cuts she had earlier objected to.
Collins previously stated that the planned cuts would be “devastating, stopping vital biomedical research and leading to the loss of jobs.”
With Collins’ endorsement, the odds of Kennedy’s confirmation surged on betting and prediction sites. Kalashi is currently giving Kennedy a 96 percent chance of getting through, while Polymarket is putting his odds at 97 percent. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) , who has already confirmed that he will be voting “no,” conceded that Kennedy will almost certainly be confirmed, citing the “Vegas odds.”
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME)
Earlier this week, Kennedy cleared another key hurdle when Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced that he would be voting to confirm minutes before a Senate Finance Committee vote. Cassidy, a physician and chair of the Senate Health Committee, on Tuesday defended his support of Kennedy after previously expressing his skepticism for the nominee. He then voted to advance his nomination in the committee vote.
Cassidy said he chose to vote for Kennedy after being assured the administration would work closely with the Health Committee, stating, like Collins, that he felt reassured after follow-up meetings with the nominee. He said that Kennedy “has been insistent that he just wants good science and to ensure safety,” adding that he has been reassured by Kennedy’s stance on vaccines after lengthy conversations.
Cassidy promised he would not allow the Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw access to vaccinations without “ironclad, causational scientific evidence that can be accepted and defended before the mainstream scientific community and before Congress” and that he would watch for “any effort to wrongfully sow public fear about vaccines.”
The full Senate will now vote on Kennedy’s confirmation after the committee voted to advance in a 14-13 vote, which broke down along party lines.
