Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to China was confirmed Tuesday with the help of 16 Democratic votes in the Senate.
David Perdue, formerly a Republican senator from Georgia, easily sailed through with a 67–29 vote, with four senators not voting. The Democrats who joined all but two Republicans to vote for Perdue weren’t only representing battleground states, either.
“Yea” votes included New Jersey’s Cory Booker, whose record-breaking speech on the Senate floor against Trump’s policies earlier this month seemed to inspire the rest of his party, as well as Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran who has criticized the administration for firing military veterans from civil service positions.
Perdue was confirmed while the U.S. and China are in the midst of a trade war entirely caused by Trump’s ill-conceived 145 percent tariffs against Chinese imports, which China has responded to with its own 84 percent tariffs against U.S. exports to the country. Somehow, 16 Senate Democrats agreed with Trump’s choice of Perdue to deal with Beijing during this manufactured crisis. Here are their names:
- Cory Booker—New Jersey
- Chris Coons—Delaware
- Tammy Duckworth—Illinois
- John Fetterman—Pennsylvania
- Ruben Gallego—Arizona
- Maggie Hassan—New Hampshire
- Tim Kaine—Virginia
- Andy Kim—New Jersey
- Angus King—Maine (independent who caucuses with Democrats)
- Amy Klobuchar—Minnesota
- Gary Peters—Michigan
- Jack Reed—Rhode Island
- Jacky Rosen—Nevada
- Jeanne Shaheen—New Hampshire
- Elissa Slotkin—Michigan
- Mark Warner—Virginia
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