--- title: Sen. Murkowski Votes 'Present' as Favor to GOP Colleague description: Sen. Murkowski, the only Republican now opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination, votes "present" to help fellow GOP Sen. Daines. canonical: https://time.com/5417656/murkowski-vote-present-kavanaugh/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-06T13:21:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:40:00.140Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sen. Lisa Murkowski Voted 'Present' Instead of 'No' on Kavanaugh as Favor to GOP Colleague og:description: Murkowski was the only Republican who opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination og:url: https://time.com/5417656/murkowski-vote-present-kavanaugh/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78dfbd46dd37907d/69893c040a4a2275619d3e3b/murkowski-vote-present.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4444 og:image:height: 2500 og:image:alt: murkowski-vote-present og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sen. Lisa Murkowski Voted 'Present' Instead of 'No' on Kavanaugh as Favor to GOP Colleague twitter:description: Murkowski was the only Republican who opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78dfbd46dd37907d/69893c040a4a2275619d3e3b/murkowski-vote-present.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sen. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c5d99280-b72e-4d0f-8c36-7f31b097bec1&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Kim Chipman and Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Kim Chipman and Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 6, 2018 1:21 PM UTC  Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, speaks with reporters just after a deeply divided Senate pushed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination past a key procedural hurdle, setting up a likely final showdown vote for Saturday, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 5, 2018. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, speaks with reporters just after a deeply divided Senate pushed Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination past a key procedural hurdle, setting up a likely final showdown vote for Saturday, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 5, 2018. J Scott Applewhite/AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Kim Chipman and Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Kim Chipman and Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 6, 2018 1:21 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican now opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, said she will use a quirky Senate procedure in Saturday’s confirmation vote to help fellow GOP Senator Steve Daines, who supported the nominee but was at his daughter’s wedding in Montana. The procedure, which involved Murkowski being recorded as “present” in the vote as opposed to “no,” was unusual enough that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office issued an explanation to reporters on Friday night. “When a senator is necessarily absent (for example, attending their daughter’s wedding), they can ‘pair’ with another senator who is voting the opposite way,” Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesman, said in a statement. “I have extended this as a courtesy to my friend. It will not change the outcome of the vote” Murkowski said on the Senate floor on Friday night. “But I do hope that it reminds us that we can take very small, very small steps to be gracious with one another and maybe those small, gracious steps can lead to more.” She made the remarks hours after Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said that sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh weren’t strong enough to persuade her to vote no. That gave him enough Senate support to win confirmation after a bitter, partisan battle. Murkowski had already announced her intention to vote “no.” Under the pairing arrangement, the senator in the duo who is present and voting — in this case Murkowski — announced that she or he has “a pair” with the senator not in attendance. Murkowski then announced how Daines would have voted and that she voted the opposite way “and that they therefore withdraw their vote and are instead recorded as present,” Stewart said. “This allows the vote to occur with the same margin as would have occurred without the absence,” Stewart added in in an email, which had the subject line “procedural nerd stuff.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5417656/murkowski-vote-present-kavanaugh/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5417656/murkowski-vote-present-kavanaugh/"},"headline":"Sen. 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