Vance’s Votes Proving Pivotal in Advancing Trump Agenda in Senate

Vice President JD Vance has emerged as an essential force in getting President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda across the finish line.

To date, the millennial veep has cast seven tiebreaking votes in his capacity as president of the Senate in support of the Trump administration’s priorities since the beginning of Trump’s second term. 

This past week, the vice president broke two ties related to procedural votes for the rescissions package. That was due to Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine, who sided with all Democrats and two nominal independents in opposing the bill. 

Trump has praised Vance’s astuteness in the past, calling his vice presidential debate performance during last year’s election season “fantastic” and saying it “reconfirmed” his choice of a running mate. 

Vance also cast the decisive vote in the Senate to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act early this month. That legislation will likely be a signature accomplishment of Trump’s second term in office. It provided billions of dollars for additional border security and defense spending, extended the Trump 2017 tax cuts, created a tax cut for taxes on tips, and created a federal school choice benefit, among other initiatives.

The vice president also cast two tie votes related to amendments to the legislation prior to its Senate passage. 

Vance also protected the president’s agenda by casting the vote to table a resolution to effectively block Trump’s global tariffs. 

The vice president has also made the adage “personnel is policy” a reality by casting the tiebreaking vote on the confirmation of Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. Hegseth has proven to be a key Cabinet official in the second Trump presidency, spearheading a successful military recruiting initiative. 

The influence of the vice president appears to be a far cry from the way Vice President John Nance Garner characterized the post when he was occupying it. Garner, who served under President Franklin Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941, was reported to have said the position was “not worth a bucket of warm spit.”

But now, in an era of fiercely divided electoral politics, the vice presidency appears to be more important than ever. Indeed, Vance’s immediate predecessor, Kamala Harris, in four years cast more tiebreaking votes, 33, than any other vice president in history. That’s an even more astounding number when you consider that Harris served just one term in office. 

John C. Calhoun, who cast the second-highest number of tiebreaking votes at 31, served as vice president for nearly two full terms, beginning 200 years ago in 1825. Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, cast 13 tiebreakers between 2017 and 2020. 

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