Neil McGill Gorsuch of Colorado won Senate confirmation Friday as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court, completing a 419-day odyssey that stretched from the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the denial of President Obama’s nominee to a Senate rules change known as the “nuclear option.”
Senators voted 54-45 to confirm Gorsuch. Republicans and three Democrats voted to approve him. The Democrats were Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. All three are all moderates who represent states that President Trump won in last year’s election. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who is recovering from back surgery, was absent for the vote.