Schumer hope 10 Senate Republicans will back same-sex marriage bill

On Tuesday the House passed the bill with 47 Republicans joining the unanimous Democratic caucus. Democrats are prayerful they can get 10 republican senators to agree.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Church Schumer speaks at a Senate Democratic caucus leadership press conference.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday he would like to see the upper chamber now vote on legislation to codify the right to same-sex and interracial marriage. It began for Democrats as a messaging vote, an election-year political maneuver to show voters that they were doing everything possible to protect marriage equality in the face of new threats from a conservative Supreme Court and a move to force Republicans to put their opposition on the record.

The House passed the legislation Tuesday in a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republicans joining a unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting the legislation. Sen. Schumer believe that Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly LGBTQ senator, is talking to Republicans to determine whether at least 10 of them will support the bill in order to overcome the Senate's 60-vote filibuster hurdle.

The majority leader tasked Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., with rallying the GOP. She has been gauging both support and potential co-sponsors to join herself, Sens. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio. "Every day we make progress," Baldwin said. "I want to do everything yesterday when you're talking about equal rights and equality and protecting civil rights," she added.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat who in 2012 became the first openly gay woman

Schumer said during a floor speech that he was "really impressed by how much bipartisan support it got in the House." He added: "I want to bring this bill to the floor. And we're working to get the necessary Senate Republican support to ensure it would pass."

President Joe Biden also wants the Senate to take up the measure quickly, with his aides saying senators should "act swiftly" in sending the bill to him for his signature. Essentially, the proposal would require all states and the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages that were lawfully granted in a particular state.

"We need this legislation, and we urge Congress to move as quickly as possible," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. "It's something the vast majority of the country support, just like they support restoring Roe [v. Wade], stopping a national abortion ban and protecting the right to use contraception."

Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Republican Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio, will co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act in the Senate, his spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday morning, adding that Portman evaluated the legislation Tuesday night and made his decision. That makes him the second Republican, along with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, to officially sign on to the bill. Portman expressed support for legalizing same-sex marriage in 2013 after his son told him that he’s gay.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, kept the door open to supporting it. Murkowski said that not only does she support upholding past Supreme Court rulings that protected abortion rights and contraception access, "I’ve also made clear my support for, for gay marriage years ago. So I will look at what the House is doing, and see what that might mean here on the Senate side."

Same-sex marriage became legal in 2015 as the result of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, while the court ruled in favor of protecting access to contraception nationwide in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965. Earlier this week, the House is also set to vote on a bill that would protect access to contraception after it approved legislation last week to codify a women's right to an abortion. The fate of those bills in the Senate is not clear.