Senate's blue wall begins to crumble as two Democrats say they'll support Trump's Supreme Court pick

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, both Democrats, say they will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch
Republicans need a total of eight Democratic defectors to end debate next week and avoid a confrontation over changing Senate rules
Manchin, Heitkamp, and eight other Dems face tough re-election fights next year in deep-red states that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump
34 of the 48 Senate Democrats have declared their opposition to Gorsuch, leaving 12 undeclared

By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 22:51 BST, 30 March 2017 | Updated: 01:15 BST, 31 March 2017

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Two Democratic senators said Thursday that they will support the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the empty seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota announced their support for President Donald Trump's nominee.

Both face tough re-election contests next year as Democrats in deep-red states where voters chose Trump over Hillary Clinton by more than 35-point margins.

Manchin and Heitkamp tweeted on Thursday that they would vote to approve Gorsuch, and issued longer statements describing why.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota announced on Thursday that they will support President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee

Judge Neil Gorsuch breezed through his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, but still faces stiff opposition from Democratic partisans

'I hold no illusions that I will agree with every decision Judge Gorsuch may issue in the future, but I have not found any reasons why this jurist should not be a Supreme Court Justice,' Manchin's statement read.

'There isn't a perfect judge,' Heitkamp griped, but '[r]egardless of which party is in the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court should be above politics.'

Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, meaning they will need six more Democratic defections in order to quickly end a promised filibuster when Gorsuch comes up for a planned April 7 vote.

If the GOP can't marshal 60 votes, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still holds one trump card – the so-called 'nuclear option.'

That course of action would involve changing a longstanding rule in order to require only a simple 51-vote majority to proceed to a Senate floor vote.

The president reportedly flirted with the idea of offering Manchin a cabinet post. Heitkamp met with Trump during the transition period with an eye toward being named secretary of agriculture.

According to a head-count from The Hill, 34 Democratic senators – more than two-thirds of them – have announced that they will follow Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's lead and vote against Gorsuch.

That leaves just 12 who have yet to declare their intentions.

Trump carried a slew of battleground states in November whose Democratic senators face re-election fights next year, putting them in a tricky position

Manchin and Heitkamp tweeted their approval of Gorsuch, raising the question of how many other Democrats will follow suit

A different but overlapping group of eight Democrats, other than Manchin and Heitkamp, are facing 2018 Senate re-election fights in states Trump won.

They include Bill Nelson of Florida, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Of those, The Hill reports that Baldwin, Brown, Casey, Nelson, Stabenow have said they will vote 'no.'