Pence casts historic vote to confirm DeVos as Education secretary

VP first to break tie on Cabinet nominee

WASHINGTON The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as the nation’s 11th Education secretary Tuesday in a historic vote, ending a tumultuous battle over her nomination.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer expressed a vote of confidence from President Trump in his newest Cabinet secretary despite opponents saying she is unqualified to serve. “The president believes strongly that our nation’s success depends on education of our students, and Betsy DeVos has devoted nearly three decades of her time and talent to promoting educational opportunity,” he said.

DeVos, 59, has long been a polarizing figure in Michigan’s political and education circles for her support of vouchers, which allow public money to follow students to the schools of their choice, and charter schools. In the weeks since a rocky confirmation hearing, she became a cause célèbre for opponents. Congressional offices were inundated with angry calls urging her to be rejected, and she was the subject of angry teacher protests nationwide.

With only two GOP members of the Senate — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — refusing to support DeVos’ nomination, it left Democrats with a 50- 50 tie to block her. Vice President Pence, in his role as Senate president, cast the tie- breaking vote in her favor.

It marked the first time in U. S. history that a vice president was called upon to break a tie vote over a presidential Cabinet nomination. Reaction to the vote was swift. Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democratic National Com- mittee, targeted potentially vulnerable senators who backed DeVos for defeat in 2018, including Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada. She said “their constituents ... will cast their votes next year to kick them out of office for selling out their state’s public schoolchildren.”

The conservative Club for Growth applauded the victory, saying DeVos beat back a “fullcourt press” by teachers unions, aided in part by its own “six- figure investment in TV and digital ads and robocalls to caution potential Republican defectors.”