BREAKING: US Senate Votes on Pete Hegseth Nomination for Defense Secretary

The United States Senate has voted to confirm President Donald Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, by a tally of 51-50.

As we wrote earlier on Friday, there was some concern over signs exhibited on Thursday evening that one senator could be waffling over voting to confirm Trump's choice to lead the Defense Department:

We always knew it was going to be tight, but North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis (R) has placed the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense in further doubt with comments Thursday night that signaled he was not a firm yes.
The vote is set for Friday night at 8:57 pm Eastern, following the 30 hours allotted post-cloture.

Moore, though, added that "Tillis has not indicated how he plans to vote, though he'd previously vowed to vote in favor of confirmation if Hegseth made it to the Senate floor."

Fox News' senior congressional reporter, Chad Pergram confirmed on his X account that the vote was still on track for that time, just before the 9:00 p.m. hour--a positive sign for Republicans in the upper chamber. Just after 8:15 p.m. EST, some surprise guests arrived at the Capitol--nominee Pete Hegseth and his family:

He added that the family was whisked away to the Strom Thurmond Room, and that "it is rare for a nominee to come to the Capitol for his/her own confirmation." Looks like Hegseth is choosing to see this through--whichever way it falls.

There have been road bumps along the way to the Senate vote on Hegseth's nomination, as I wrote in November 2024 about a "breathaking," anti-Catholic attack on him, with the most recent allegation leaked in the past few days from a confidential legal document on a former sister-in-law's statement about Hegseth's ex-wife--which the latter denied was true.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived minutes after Hegseth:

The U.S. Senate began voting on the nomination at around 8:58 p.m. EST. Then there were two nays from Republican lawmakers, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME). At 9:15 p.m., it was reported that Tillis would vote yes on Hegseth's confirmation after all:

Then Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted nay, making the vote 49-50, but as Pergram noted, "This tees up a probable tiebreaker vote by [Vice President JD] Vance to confirm Hegseth. Will be only the second VP to break a tie to confirm a cabinet nominee. Pence on DeVos in 2017."

Tillis officially cast his aye vote at 9:26 p.m., making it a tie. Just after voting began on the nomination, his office released a statement, clarifying his vote and giving praise to Hegseth, via Tillis' X account, which read:

From the beginning, I have been clear about my position: if President Trump’s nominees were reported favorably out of the relevant committees, I would support their confirmation on the Senate floor absent new material information about their qualifications. Once Pete Hegseth’s nomination was sent to the floor by my colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I conducted my own due diligence, including asking tough questions of Pete and I appreciated his candor and openness in answering them.
Pete has a unique perspective as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is unquestionably passionate about modernizing our military and supporting the brave patriots like himself who serve our nation. I will support his confirmation and look forward to working with him to rebuild our military and advance President Trump’s peace through strength agenda.

Vance shared an example of his dry wit in a post on his X account, saying:

I thought I was done voting in the senate

He ended with a laughing emoji. Then the vice president and president of the Senate arrived on Capitol Hill around 9:44 p.m. EST, to cast the tie-breaking vote, at 9:51 p.m. EST

This is a breaking story. RedState will provide updates as more details become available.

[Editor's Note: This article was edited for clarity after publication.]