5 Dems Were Undecided on Kavanaugh. Now There Are 4

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill is a "no" on Brett Kavanaugh. She's one of five Senate Democrats facing a challenging re-election bid who had been undecided on the Supreme Court nominee and is the first of that group to reveal her vote, reports the AP. Politico reports her decision isn't a "huge surprise," as she was also a no vote on Neil Gorsuch in 2017. McCaskill said the accusation of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford didn't play into her choice, which was informed by what she described as Kavanaugh's positions on presidential power and on the "dark, anonymous money that is crushing our democracy."

She continued, "He has revealed his bias against limits on campaign donations which places him completely out of the mainstream of this nation." Politico notes that Kavanaugh doesn't actually need any Democrats to support him so long as he can secure aye votes from 50 of the 51 Senate Republicans. As for McCaskill, she's in a tight race against Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, once a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts. (More Brett Kavanaugh stories.)