Proving that he is the best partner to President Donald Trump and that he could match the hard work and dogged determination the President is putting in to press forward their administration's objectives, Vice President Mike Pence made the historic move of breaking a 50-50 tie on a Cabinet nomination by casting his vote and ensuring that the President's choice, Betsy DeVos, gets confirmed as education secretary.
Democrats worked hard to derail the nomination of DeVos and causing further delay to the proceedings was the decision of two Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to join the Democrats in blocking the confirmation of DeVos, bringing the vote to a tie. The Senate historian confirmed that Pence's decisive vote was the first by a vice president to break such a tie involving a cabinet nomination.
It was not an easy journey towards confirmation for DeVos as she was met with fervent opposition from liberals. She was also made the subject of much ridicule and character assassination attacks. Her supposed lack of experience in public school administration, and her being wealthy and a previous Republican donor, were also aggressively questioned.
President Trump stood by her and by his choice all the way. Trump scored Democrats for getting in the way of his administration's education progress by blocking the nomination of De Vos. The President even tweeted that Betsy DeVos is a reformer and that she is going to be a great education secretary for our kids.
DeVos was sworn in just hours after the Senate vote by no less than her "tie-breaker" hero
Vice President Pence. Pence also accorded her a nice compliment when he said he just did not cast his vote for her, but after seeing her devotion to improving the quality of education of some of the most vulnerable children across the nation the past many years, Pence affirmed that he was also voting for American children. Pence said voting for DeVos was the easiest vote to cast.
DeVos for her part promised to be a "tireless advocate for all students".
