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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will vote "present" as a courtesy to Montana Sen. Steve Daines as he plans to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding, which collides with the timing of the Senate floor vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The big picture: Her vote will not change the outcome of Kavanaugh's confirmation as Sen. Daines was expected to vote in favor of Trump's pick. Though Murkowski announced earlier that she opposes Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, she says she hopes her "present" vote "reminds us we can take very small steps to be gracious."

Sen. Steve Daines will walk his daughter down the aisle in Montana on Saturday—but if needed, he will rush back to Washington on a fellow lawmaker's plane to vote for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. Daines said Friday that his longtime family friend and colleague, Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., swooped in to “save the day” by offering his plane. Daines has said he will vote for Kavanaugh, but Saturday's planned floor vote conflicts with his daughter's wedding. “My good friend and colleague, Greg, has come to save the day. If I need to be in two places at...

<p>Sen. Steve Daines says he'll return to Washington D.C. by private jet on his daughter's wedding day if his vote is needed to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.</p> <p>The Montana Republican said in a statement to The Associated Press that his Republican colleague, Montana congressman Greg Gianforte, "has come to save the day" by offering him use of his private jet.</p>

The Left's romance with the Islamic Republic ensues. The Senate debated on Tuesday a resolution introduced by Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders that would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Yemen. The surprising support the resolution won from 44 U.S. Senators handed a big win to Iran, which is engaged in a hot war with Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula. And it was a huge slap in the face to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who was meeting with President Trump in the White House as the Senate debated the motion on the floor. It also showed the...

Montana state auditor Matt Rosendale leads Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in the race for the U.S. Senate seat in Montana, according to a poll released Monday. Rosendale leads Tester, 47 to 45 percent, in a recent poll conducted by WPA Intelligence for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Five percent of Montana voters remain undecided, and the race has a four-point margin of error. The survey questioned 600 likely Montana voters from August 20 through 22. Rosendale won the Montana Senate Republican primary in June, while Sen. Tester hopes to secure his third term in the Senate this November. Both...

The last time President Trump traveled to Montana, Democrat Senator Jon Tester welcomed him with open arms, placing full-page ads in 14 newspapers praising the President.This time, Tester won’t be so excited to see Donald Trump. With a big boost from the President at the Great Falls rally on July 5, Tester’s opponent has since gained ground in the race for the U.S. Senate.Prior to that visit, the Republican Senate candidate Matt Rosendale was trailing Democrat incumbent, Senator Jon Tester, by 8 points. Just one month later, the Republican candidate has flipped 10 points and now leads Tester 47...

President Trump bashed Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) during a campaign rally in his home state of Montana on Thursday night, accusing the incumbent senator of embracing the "swamp" in Washington, D.C. “Jon Tester will never drain the swamp because he happens to live in the swamp and he loves the swamp,” Trump said in Billings, Mont., while touting Tester's Senate GOP rival Matt Rosendale. "The problem is he’s never going to vote for me,” Trump added, referring to Tester. Trump attempted to tie the Democratic senator to his popular foils, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), House Democratic Leader Nancy...

Two incumbent red-state Democratic senators who have been the targets of some of President Trump's ire are facing increasingly tough odds to win re-election in November, a new poll shows, underscoring the challenges Democrats face in their bid to retake the Senate in November -- as well as Trump's continuing presence in key battleground states. Montana Sen. Jon Tester and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill are locked in dead heats with their Republican challengers, according to the CBS News poll, with Tester leading Matt Rosendale by only two percentage points and McCaskill tied with Josh Hawley at 45 percent. Both results...

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Republicans facing a blue wave might have found a new way to whip up their base – at least for the next few days, thanks to Brett Kavanaugh. “You know, Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a man of integrity with impeccable credentials,” Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday, to uproarious cheers and applause, at the end of a riff about other conservative judges President Trump has nominated. Pence’s lines about Kavanaugh got a bigger rise out of the crowd than anything he said about tax reform, Obamacare or even 2016’s most reliable rallying cry – a promise to...

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., will not be available at any point on Saturday to vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Instead, he'll be at his daughter’s wedding, Fox News has learned. The absence of the senator – expected to support the embattled nominee’s confirmation – throws a wrench into the works as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., aims to push through Kavanaugh’s nomination to the high court. The decision means McConnell would need to obtain all of his available 50 Republican senators to vote for the judge. It would also push Vice President Mike Pence out of...

Montana Sen. Tester says he will vote against Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the US Supreme Court - @frankthorp

He was just in studio with Shannon Bream and said he will be there to vote yes.

Trump Jr says Gaines is a go! They worked it out!!

U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R) says he needs to be in Montana this weekend for his daughter's wedding, throwing Saturday's vote on Kavanaugh in doubt - NBCMT

Democratic leaders need a unified caucus to put maximum pressure on a handful of holdout Republicans. Democrats have all the cover they need to vote in lockstep against Brett Kavanaugh. But a half-dozen of them have refused to go there, even after the pair of sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee. Democratic insiders are feeling more bullish than ever that the party’s 49 caucus members ultimately will oppose Kavanaugh. Yet the undeclared bloc of Democratic senators could be a problem for Democratic leaders, who want to put the weight of the nomination entirely on a handful of holdout...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is "screwing" over his Democratic colleagues by keeping them in session this October and therefore keeping them off the campaign trail, according to Politico's Burgess Everett. "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is planning to keep the chamber in session for a significant portion of October if not four entire weeks, costing Democrats key campaign trail days and allowing the Senate to continue its work into the fall, according to five Republican officials," Everett writes . Yet, Republicans say two weeks is plenty of time for their Democratic colleagues to make their case to voters. Burgess Everett...

The Kentucky Republican identifies a large number of toss-up contests The 2018 midterms are setting up to be like a “knife fight in an alley,” according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Republican from Kentucky said he expects to see more of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama on the campaign trail. But McConnell, asked about whether Trump should be talking about the prospects of Democrats trying to impeach him, said, “I don’t have any advice to give him about what he says at the rallies.” Speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Louisville, McConnell rattled off...

The new NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey, taken six weeks before Americans head to the polls, shows Democrats leading Republicans by 52 percent to 40 percent for control of Congress. If it holds, that 12 percentage point margin would suggest a "blue wave" large enough to switch control of not just the House but also the Senate.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a red state Democrat running for re-election in one of the closest Senate contests this year, has campaigned as a big hunting proponent, sending out mailers to voters that show him on his farm with his gun in hand. “As we gear up for hunting season, Montanans know that hunting isn’t just a sport – it feeds our families, and it creates lifelong memories with our kids and grandkids,” Tester says in the campaign flier. “Montanans are lucky to have some of the best access, longest seasons and greatest hunting in the world.” But according to...

Campaign finance watchdog groups are planning to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission asking it to investigate whether Montana GOP Senate nominee Matt Rosendale and the National Rifle Association were illegally coordinating in the race.The Campaign Legal Center and Giffords, the nonprofit political arm of former Rep. Gabby Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) organization, said that they’re filing the complaint on Friday or on Monday. The complaint is being filed after a Daily Beast story published audio it obtained that suggests Rosendale knew the NRA would be involved in the marquee Senate race, saying it had obtained it from an unspecified...