Kyrsten Sinema has 'quietly worked for four months' to get votes needed to break Tuberville’s blockade

Even though Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) has remained obstinately committed to maintaining his hold on hundreds of high-profile Pentagon nominations, one swing state senator is on the verge of mobilizing enough of his GOP colleagues against him to put the blockade to an end.

According to Politico, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) has been leveraging her relationships with Republicans for the past four months in order to win over the 60 votes needed to bypass Tuberville and confirm the 300+ US military leadership nominations that still have yet to be put to a vote. While Sinema has been a thorn in the side of Senate Democratic leadership, she has nonetheless built up significant political capital with her GOP colleagues, especially since she officially left the Democratic Party late last year. If Sinema can get nine Republicans on board, that may prove to be the end of Tuberville's obstruction.

"I’ve been visiting with [Sinema] about it. She’s been visiting with a lot of us about it, who might be worried about our military," Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said.

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While bypassing a senator's hold on a nomination would typically require a two-thirds vote of 67 senators, Sinema has reportedly been working with the Senate parliamentarian to ensure that going around Tuberville would only require 60 votes. The independent senator has reportedly sought to structure the confirmations by grouping nominees together, rather than endure the arduous process of having to confirm each person individually.

"If we do have to do it, what’s the least disruptive thing we can do?" Sinema said of her plan.

The biggest contributor to Sinema's credibility among Republicans has been her opposition to eliminating the filibuster, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) celebrated as a win for his side in 2022. Still, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-South Dakota) called Sinema's plan to circumvent Tuberville "a heavy lift" for his caucus.

Tuberville has held up the military nominees for months to protest the Pentagon's policy of paying for service members' travel costs to obtain abortions in states that haven't criminalized it, following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. Last week, Ernst and four other Senate Republicans — Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Todd Young (R-Indiana) — spoke out against Tuberville's blockade on the Senate floor, accusing him of jeopardizing national security.

READ MORE: 'National security suicide mission': GOP senators are turning on Tommy Tuberville