Red-state Democrats don't dare defy voters on Trump nominees

Senate Democrats unanimously opposed President Trump’s tax cuts, but several Democrats in red states are increasingly voting to approve key nominations from President Trump with a little more than six months before the election.

Four of them — Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. — voted for both Mike Pompeo’s nomination to become secretary of state and for Ric Grenell to become the ambassador to Germany after weeks of attacks from Republicans. Heitkamp made her announcement on Pompeo a week before the vote, leading to a slow stream of decisions by her colleagues that helped get the former CIA chief across the finish line.