Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court is poised to come closer to an election than nearly every other nomination to the highest court in modern American history.

Only three of the soon-to-be 60 formal nominations to the Supreme Court in last century have come closer to a nationwide federal election than Trump's pick, even if he made his nomination on Thursday, according to a CNN analysis of data from the United States Senate

The President says he is likely to nominate a new associate justice in the coming weeks. Only 131 days remain until the 2018 elections, as of June 28.

Trump's nominee, who is poised to shape the ideology of the nation's most powerful judicial body for a generation, will likely face a razor-thin confirmation battle in the Senate, where Republicans control a narrow 51-49 majority. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to support Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, in February 2017.

The move will come after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to take up President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland, which came 237 days before the presidential election in 2016.

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