Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) will vote yes on a motion to proceed with the Republican proposal to repeal Obamacare, the Columbus Dispatch reported on Tuesday.
The Columbus Dispatch reported, citing an unnamed source close to Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), that Portman called Kasich to tell him of his decision.
Portman’s swing in favor of the measure would represent a significant victory for Republican leaders in a last-ditch effort where every vote counts.
Earlier in July, Kasich torched the revised Senate repeal proposal, calling it an “unacceptable” plan that “fails to bring solutions from both sides to the table.”
Portman last week said he was “concerned” about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) other proposal, a revival of a 2015 bill to repeal Obamacare without a replacement.
Senate Republicans have since signaled that they may push a narrowly tailored bill to repeal Obamacare provisions known as a “skinny repeal” in an effort to pass a proposal — any proposal — out of the Senate so both chambers can hammer out a more specific strategy to send to President Donald Trump’s desk at some later point.
