Washington Post congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor agreed with the assessment and said there had been a “significant shift” on the previously embattled nominee. She credited the grassroots Republican attacks on weak Republicans as particularly helpful to Hegseth’s case.

“And I think the reason why is because the moment that Trump came out and said that he is behind his pick, we did see a number of Trump allies kind of green lighting to the MAGA base, all right, start calling senators who are a little bit worried on Hegseth. Start — start to threaten, actually, a number of senators, including Sen. Joni Ernst, that she could get primaried. This is something that Elon Musk has also said publicly that he will use his super PACs to not just find candidates to go against any senator who may vote against a nominee, but also fund those campaigns.”

The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood broke the news that Ernst was waging an “aggressive” campaign against Hegseth’s nomination in the hope she might be appointed defense secretary. Her past support for pushing transgender ideology on the military was also highlighted. The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson explained the stakes of the nomination battle in his piece, “ Pete Hegseth’s Nomination Is A Hill Trump Should Die On.”

Associated Press executive editor Julie Pace also agreed that Republican voters had apparently figured out how to remind senators that they mattered at least as much as their beltway friends.