The Senate on Friday night confirmed President Trump nominee Pete Hegseth as the country's next Defense secretary, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. 

The final vote was 51-50.

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Susan Collins, Maine; and Mitch McConnell, Kentucky, voted against the nomination of Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox News host. 

Much of the drama about whether Hegseth would have the votes ended when North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said on social media late Friday that he would vote yes. Vance breaking the tie reportedly marks only the second time in modern history that a vice president has done so for a Cabinet nomination.

No Senate Democrat voted to confirm Hegseth. 

The 44-year-old Hegseth rose to the rank of Army major and served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The confirmation marks a stunning turnaround for Hegseth and his nomination, which in the early stages seemed doomed over concerns about his qualifications, excessive drinking, opposition to women in combat and alleged sexual misconduct.

Hegseth has denied all of the allegations. 

When Trump nominated Hegseth shortly after winning reelection, he said his nominee would bring a new perspective to the Pentagon and rebuild the “most powerful military in the world.”

But the concerns about Hegseth and his past, also including questions about his leadership and financial management of two veteran advocacy groups, appeared to be too big to overcome. 

However, he and his attorney, Tim Parlatore, chose to mount a counter-offensive – in large part by shifting the focus from allegations to policy discussions, particularly on improving the Pentagon.

"I think that it's we had a couple of weeks there where there were all these negative articles coming out, and the conventional wisdom is a nominee doesn't respond, you know, doesn't give interviews, don't say anything until after the confirmation hearing, so you don't give the other side ammo," Parlatore recently told Just the News. 

"And you know, really, there came a point last week where, you know, they were talking about potentially replacing them, and Pete and I just said, you know, forget this. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna break the rules. We're gonna go out. Because every single one of these things has a good fact based response. We just need to present it."

Parlatore also said Hegseth's one-on-one talks with Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would recommends, or decides, whether the Defense secretary nominee gets a final vote, was pivotal.

"Senator Ernst and others and start talking about policy, and you get past whether he committed misconduct and throw that to the side," Parlatore continued. "OK, now let's talk about policy. Let's talk about what we're going to actually do to improve the Pentagon. And I think that that is one place where the two of them really have found common ground."