Vice President Pence will be the deciding vote.
Via Daily Mail:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday set up a procedural vote for Friday on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, setting the stage for a final vote on the Supreme Court nominee this weekend, possible as early as Saturday.
McConnell filed a petition for cloture on Wednesday evening, a procedural move designed to end debate around Kavanaugh’s nomination.
In the complicated rules governing the Senate legislative process, there is a requirement for an ‘intervening day’ to pass between when the GOP leader files for cloture and when the Senate votes on that motion.
McConnell’s motion will ‘ripen’ – to use the Senate’s term – one hour after the Senate gavels into session on Friday, meaning he can call a cloture vote that day.
Once the Senate votes on cloture and, assuming it passes, that starts the clock ticking on a final 30-hour period of debate before the Senate holds its final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Depending on what time the Senate holds its cloture vote on Friday, that 30 hours could result in a Saturday evening vote.
If Friday’s procedural vote goes as planned, that will give Senators one day to examine the FBI report on sexual allegations against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
‘There will be plenty of time for members to review and be briefed on this supplemental material before a Friday cloture vote,’ McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday evening.
McConnell must muster up 51 votes to pass cloture on Friday, a move that could still be a question mark for the GOP.
Senate Republicans only have a 51-seat majority, so they can afford to lose only one senator if all Democrats vote no on Kavanaugh.
Should it be a 50-50 vote, Vice President Mike Pence would break the tie.
Key Republican senators Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have not said how they will vote, noting they are waiting to see the FBI’s report first.
Additionally two Democratic senators running for re-election in states Trump won in 2016 – Joe Manchin in West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota – have not said how they will vote. Both voted to confirm Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.