The Senate advanced John Ratcliffe’s nomination for Central Intelligence Agency director in a key test vote, effectively guaranteeing he will be confirmed in a final vote later Thursday.

Mr. Ratcliffe earned bipartisan support in the procedural test vote, 72-26.

“Mr. Ratcliffe is a qualified nominee,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said, citing his time as Director of National Intelligence in the first Trump administration and his service in the House on the Intelligence Committee and as chairman of the Homeland Security panel’s cybersecurity subcommittee.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York was among the Democrats who opposed Mr. Ratcliffe’s nomination.

“I’m deeply worried that Mr. Ratcliffe will be unable to stand up to people like Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, who are known to falsify intelligence,” he said.

Ms. Gabbard is Mr. Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of National Intelligence, a role Mr. Ratcliffe held during Mr. Trump’s first term.

Mr. Schumer said he urged Mr. Ratcliffe during a private meeting to tell Mr. Trump he should drop Ms. Gabbard’s nomination, citing her “history of cheering America’s adversaries” and concerns she would “push false intelligence for political ends.” 

“Those are precisely the moments Mr. Ratcliffe will have to hold firm, reject what she says and go to the president and speak truth to power,” Mr. Schumer said. “His answers to my questions about that were unsatisfying.”

GOP leaders had hoped to confirm Mr. Ratcliffe on Tuesday, but Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, objected to speeding up the vote.

“During his short eight months as DNI in 2020 he repeatedly politicized intelligence in a way that does raise for many of us real questions about whether he’s going to spin highly sensitive intelligence his agency will gather for political purposes,” Mr. Murphy said. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make sure that we have a full real debate that lasts two days on the Senate floor.”

Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said it’s fine for Democrats to have legitimate concerns about Mr. Ratcliffe, but that is no reason to slow down his inevitable confirmation.

He predicted that Democrats would use very little of the two days in which the nomination was held up to debate Mr. Ratcliffe’s qualifications on the floor, which proved to be true.

• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.