Dem
47
GOP
53
With ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza and trouble in other hotspots, it might be useful if the U.S. had someone over at the United Nations minding the store. Donald Trump did nominate someone as ambassador to the U.N., namely Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), but the Senate has not yet confirmed her. Do the senators doubt her qualifications? Not really. She knows nothing about foreign policy but you can see Canada from her district, and Canada is still a foreign country, for the time being. Besides, she can be counted on to hew to the Trump line unfailingly on everything.
Isn't that enough? Technically, yes. She is reasonably sane and was originally elected to the House as a normie Republican, but when Trump came along, she saw her chance and drank a gallon of the Kool-Aid. When the Senate finally gets around to voting, she will get every Republican vote and probably some Democratic votes from those Democrats who need to prove that they don't reflexively oppose everything Trump does.
So why is the Senate sitting on its collective rear end when the U.S. badly needs an ambassador to the U.N.? The answer is simple: politics. Right now the House has 218 Republicans and 215 Democrats. Two seats are vacant—those of Matt Gaetz, who was reelected but decided not to show up to be sworn in (because then the Ethics Committee would release a report on him he doesn't want released), and Michael Waltz, who resigned to be Donald Trump's NSA. This means that if any two Republicans vote no on a bill it fails. If the Senate confirms Stefanik, the score becomes 217R, 215D, so any one Republican defection would kill the measure (because the House does not have tiebreakers). That would give every one of the 217 Republicans veto power over everything. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) does not want that, so Stefanik remains in limbo and the U.S. does not have an ambassador to the U.N.
But surely, a Republican would be elected in the special election resulting from the empty seat in NY-21, an R+9 district, after Stefanik resigns? Yes, but the New York State legislature is working on a bill that could allow the governor to delay the special election until November, thus keeping Stefanik's seat vacant for months. Needless to say, Republicans are screaming bloody murder about the bill giving the governor more leeway about when to schedule the special election, but Democrats are claiming it would save the taxpayers money. The fate of the bill is still uncertain, but Senate Republicans don't want to take their chances. Consequently, Stefanik is still a representative and there is no U.S. ambassador to the U.N. (V)