Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) all sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which on Monday starts its two-day hearing on Garland’s nomination to lead President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. The committee has evolved in recent years into a powerful platform for members with broader political ambitions, and all four GOP senators are viewed as potential White House hopefuls for a party currently riven by internal strife…
Hawley is the only GOP senator so far to vote against every one of Biden’s Cabinet nominees. Neither he, Cruz, Cotton nor Sasse have signaled yet whether they’ll support Garland, though Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a former chair of the Judiciary panel, called the nomination a “sound choice” by Biden last month.
The four senators are already carving out starkly different lanes for themselves within the GOP as the party clashes internally over how or whether to move beyond Trump while still appealing to his legion of followers. Both Hawley and Cruz challenged the certification of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, sparking bipartisan backlash from their colleagues. Cotton and Sasse both supported certification.
