Conservatives are ready to wreak havoc on the Republican Party if GOP lawmakers reverse their vow not to consider Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court,
Politico reports.
Hours after Scalia's death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted his replacement should be nominated by the next president and most Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill agreed.
But pressure from Democrats, public sentiment and on GOP senators who are up for reelection this year being voted out of office may change that.
"If the senators start to move off of this position, the biggest problem they are going to face is going to be a loss of support … they're going to alienate the most active part of their constituency," Adam Brandon, president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, told Politico.
Still, it seems to be happening.
The New York Times reports several senators will hold to private meetings with Garland this week, including Mark Kirk of Illinois, whom the newspaper describes as "perhaps the most endangered Senate Republican up for re-election."
And on Monday, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is expected to turn up the heat when she delivers a speech about the Supreme Court that at the University of Wisconsin,
Politico says.
The political news website says Clinton is expected to challenge Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings on Garland's nomination.
Clinton's address could also be seen to have an element of political payback as it was Grassley who has lead the Senate probe into her use of a personal email server when she was secretary of state.