Fetterman joins Republicans to advance Huckabee nomination
The procedural motion sets up a final vote on Huckabee’s nomination on Wednesday
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The Senate voted 53-46 to advance former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Israel on Tuesday, with only Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) crossing the aisle to vote with all Republicans to move his nomination forward.
The procedural motion sets up a final vote on Huckabee’s nomination on Wednesday.
Fetterman had signaled for weeks that he is likely to support Huckabee.
“He’ll have all the votes that he needs,” Fetterman told Jewish Insider last month. “He’s been in public life for a while. Our politics are definitely different, but he’s deeply devoted to Israel, as I am, so I can’t imagine voting against him.”
Though Huckabee was among Trump’s first foreign policy picks, his nomination took several months to move to a confirmation hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee. But after that hearing, he moved quickly to a committee vote the following week, and the Senate floor the week after that.
That quick process came in spite of objections from some Democrats, who attempted unsuccessfully to delay the committee vote and deny Republicans the quorum they needed to hold the vote.