Vice President Kamala Harris just entered the record books.
Harris, who will be in office for at least another 12 months and is seeking reelection, has broken John C. Calhoun’s record for tiebreaking votes in the Senate at 32. The history-making vote was 51-50 on Tuesday to advance President Joe Biden’s nominee, Loren AliKhan, to be a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia.
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It didn’t take long for Harris to set another record. Later Tuesday afternoon, she was needed to break the deadlock over the final confirmation vote on AliKhan — putting her new milestone at 33 tiebreakers.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) opposed Biden’s nominee, joining with all Republicans, which set the stage for Harris’s decisive vote.
“Madame Vice President,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said after the first record-setting vote. “Today is historic. Vice President Harris has just cast her 32nd tiebreaking vote, the most tiebreakers ever. I join all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle thanking the vice president for her leadership and for making the work of the Senate possible.”
Schumer said judicial nominations and key pieces of legislation wouldn’t have happened without Harris.
“Every time duty has called, Vice President Harris has answered more than any other vice president in our nation’s long and storied history,” Schumer said.
Calhoun’s record of 31 tiebreakers stood for nearly 200 years, as his term as vice president ran from 1825 to 1832. Harris raced to match and then exceed his tally thanks to a 50-50 Senate during her first two years in office, followed by one that was technically 51-49 in the Democrats’ favor but has been hampered by absences and defections.
Vice presidents, as the president of the Senate, cast tiebreaking votes when the upper chamber is deadlocked, though it’s a fairly rare occurrence that has happened less than 300 times since the nation’s founding. Joe Biden and Dan Quayle, for example, never cast a tiebreaker during their vice presidencies.
Harris, by contrast, has had to cast so many tiebreakers that some feel the practice distracts her from her other duties. Other than Calhoun, Harris, and John Adams, no vice president has cast more than 19 tiebreaking votes in office.
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Among the more notable tiebreakers Harris has made included votes to approve the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan stimulus legislation and the $891 billion Inflation Reduction Act. She cast four tiebreakers in a single day on May 11, 2022.
Along with her frequent tiebreakers, Harris enjoys a high profile for a vice president as she would become the commander in chief if Biden, 81, cannot complete a first or second term.
