The Senate voted largely along party lines to approve Elbridge Colby’s nomination to serve as the Pentagon’s under secretary for policy Tuesday afternoon.
Senators voted 54 to 45 to confirm Colby with former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky the lone Republican to vote “no” on the nomination. Colby’s successful confirmation vote comes after reporting that Senate defense hawks were mobilizing behind the scenes to tank Colby’s nomination, citing concerns over his past statements on Iran.
Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island — the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee — notably joined with Senate Republicans to support Colby’s nomination.
McConnell, a frequent critic of Trump’s America First foreign policy views, argued that Colby would fail to pay sufficient attention to threats in the Middle East and Europe.
“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” McConnell said in a statement following the vote. “Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move.”
“It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit,” McConnell continued. “Make no mistake: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline.”
The former Senate Republican leader also voted against Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard citing concerns over their foreign policy views.
Vice President JD Vance, a notably Colby ally, introduced the senior defense nominee during his confirmation hearing on March 4, touting his “incredible integrity and intellect.”
Colby pledged to execute Trump’s America First vision of “peace through strength” as the Pentagon’s third-ranking defense official during the hearing.
“I am committed to implementing his [Trump’s] vision of a defense and foreign policy of putting Americans’ interests first and of peace through strength,” Colby told senators. “Peace and the protection of American interests in the world cannot be assumed. There is a real risk of major war, and we cannot afford to lose one. I recognize these realities in my bones.”
Colby has previously suggested that executing military strikes on Iran would be a dangerous course for the United States to take. He has long advocated for the U.S. military to prioritize the Indo-Pacific region to focus on China.
“I think Iran is a more formidable danger … Iran has a large conventional and asymmetric military that presents a threat to US allies,” Colby wrote on X in October 2023. “Don’t be deceived. Any serious effort to suppress Iran’s nuclear program would be very, very demanding and consuming. Iran’s military has limited conventional power projection a capabilities but is formidable in self-defense.”
The senior defense nominee told Cotton during his confirmation hearing that he viewed a nuclear-armed Iran as an “existential threat” to the United States.
Colby, who will be tasked with briefing Hegseth on policy matters, cleared the Senate Armed Services Committee panel during a private vote on April 1.
He served as former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development during the first Trump administration. Colby co-led efforts to draft the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which focused long-term military strategy on the threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region.
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