Judge Neil Gorsuch likely has votes for confirmation.

washington» Judge Neil Gorsuch emerged from his third and final day of confirmation hearings with a couple dings in the armor, more than a few frustrated Democrats and what’s likely to be a clear path to the ninth and final seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Colorado native won’t appear Thursday before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, though lawmakers plan to question a long list of witnesses — including two men from his home state — about Gorsuch’s life and 10 years as judge on the Denverbased 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But if the past three days are any indication, the pick of President Donald Trump will have the support he needs when the Republican-controlled Senate votes on his appointment, expected by mid-April.

“I think you’ve done a good job of answering a lot of questions over the last three days,” said U.S. Sen. Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “I look forward to supporting your nomination.”

Democrats were less pleased, and they frequently sparred with the judge in trying to glean more information on how he would approach cases dealing with abortion or campaign finance — though Gorsuch did expound his thinking on the courts’ role in evaluating federal regulations.

“What worries me is that you have been very much able to avoid any specificity, like no one I’ve ever seen before. Maybe that’s a virtue. I don’t know,” said California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee.

Even so, as the third day ended, a couple of Democrats — perhaps sensing the likelihood of his confirmation — used part of their time to flag issues such as climate change, anti-trust law and the influence of money in politics.

In one exchange, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island pressed Gorsuch on his approach to campaign finance in light of the 2010 decision in Citizens United that helped open the floodgates for new spending in political campaigns.

As he did Tuesday, Gorsuch said — if they wanted — lawmakers had the legal means to set limits on political spending. “Congress has ample authority and opportunity to pass campaign finance regulation,” he said.

But Whitehouse countered that the new political spending emboldened by Citizens United makes it much harder for Congress to do so.

One topic that coaxed more comment from Gorsuch on Wednesday is a legal paradigm known as Chevron deference. The 1984 decision by the Supreme Court gave federal agencies more flexibility to make decisions on how to apply laws that affect their jurisdiction when the meaning of the law is ambiguous.

In a prior opinion, Gorsuch seemed open to the idea of revisiting Chevron deference. Gorsuch expanded on that idea Wednesday and noted one concern he had with Chevron deference is that he saw it as unfair to average citizens, who have to contend with the changing whims of different presidents and their administrations.