Sen. John McCain, another leading opponent of Gillibrand’s bill, said he’s not conceding she will win on the floor. “We’ve been counting votes, too, and I’ve not yet seen her 51 yet,” the Arizona Republican said. “She certainly has significant support, but we’ll have to wait and see, I think.”

Gillibrand said her goal is to connect with every senator before the floor debate. She said she has more commitments from senators beyond those who have spoken up. “Hopefully they’ll make their views public soon,” she said Tuesday after her lobbying blitz on the floor, aided by a staffer carrying a list of senators she should connect with.

Text Size -

+

reset

She plans to talk with about a dozen senators who haven’t heard from her, either in person or with phone calls over the August break. No one is off-limits, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who she has already spoken with a couple times and hopes to convert the same way she recently won over fellow Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul.

“It’s a matter of advocacy and spending time with people and taking them through the issue, explaining it in detail,” Gillibrand said. “Also, them having an opportunity to talk to victims from their states and really understand how its impacted people that they represent — that’s vital.”

Ahead of the vote, Gillibrand and her allies are keeping the fence-sitters on their toes. Grassley said he has met with GOP Sens. John Boozman, Mike Crapo, Mike Enzi and John Thune. “I’ve had a good reception by everybody, but I think I’ve only converted a couple people, and I won’t name them,” Grassley said.

Gillibrand also sat down with Enzi just as Liz Cheney was announcing her primary challenge in Wyoming. On Tuesday, Gillibrand gave him another nudge during a brief interaction on the floor.

“I really appreciate their efforts,” Enzi told POLITICO. Asked if he will support Gillibrand, he said: “I usually don’t say that until I vote.”

Several other senators from both sides of the aisle are also keeping their cards close.

Both Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Sherrod Brown said after Tuesday’s Democratic Caucus luncheon that they’re reviewing the two approaches and weren’t sure where they’ll come down yet.

“I want to talk to commanders and enlisted men and women at home,” Brown said, noting he had also just heard from McCaskill during the lunch. “There’s no hurry on this. But I want to understand it better. I’m not a lawyer. I’ve never done prosecutions.”

Aides to Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Mark Warner of Virginia said their bosses weren’t ready to make public commitments.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin also said he’s undecided. He added that Democratic leaders will leave the vote whipping to Gillibrand and Levin. “When our caucus is divided, we don’t do that,” Durbin said.

Among Republicans, there are at least a half-dozen senators who aren’t ready to line up with the likes of Grassley, Paul and Ted Cruz.

“Right now, I’m really in discussions with members of the military in terms of their feelings, and I’m not necessarily in support of that one,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said he is still working through the issues, including drawing on the experiences of Wyoming National Guard members he met during a recent trip to Bahrain and from his own time working with sexual assault victims as an orthopedic surgeon. “My long history is to follow the chain of command in the military,” he said. “You want to make sure this doesn’t happen again. At the same time, you want justice to be done.”