A procedural vote by the U.S. Senate has sent Kash Patel’s nomination to the body’s floor, setting up a confirmation vote as soon as Thursday.

Since being handpicked by President Donald Trump to head up the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Patel has been a lightning rod in the nomination circuit, where senators have expressed doubt about his past statements criticizing the “deep state” and senior leaders of the domestic protection agency. Those concerns, however, were laid aside on Tuesday as the Senate voted 48-45 along party lines to tee up Patel for a confirmation vote.

Republican senators say Patel “has the votes” to become the next FBI director, which would represent a significant win for the Trump administration. The former national security advisor will now be the subject of 30 hours of debate in the Senate before a vote is held.

The road for Patel, 44, has not been easy or straightforward, at times requiring him to answer candidly when asked by Democratic senators about his plans to turn the FBI upside down and root out “weaponization” he alleges has been used for years against President Trump. Before a key Senate committee approved his nomination last week, the former prosecutor was grilled by ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) on whether America is “safer” after Trump unconditionally pardoned all 1,600 J6 prisoners and defendants.

“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” he told members of the Judiciary Committee.

In contrast to his usual fiery demeanor in the press, Patel sounded a note of conservatism as he promised to run an “apolitical” Bureau.

“There will be no politicization at the FBI,” Patel said. “There will be no retributive action.”

He has praised FBI agents for being “courageous, apolitical warriors of justice,” according to the New York Post, and promised with their help to “cut in half” the number of serious crimes involving the agency, including “100,000 rapes … 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and … 17,000 homicides.”

If confirmed, Patel would be expected to serve a 10-year term.

“Mr. Patel has undergone a rigorous vetting,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said in a hearing last week. “He produced more than a thousand pages of records and disclosed over a thousand interviews. He underwent an FBI background investigation, produced a financial disclosure, and worked with ethics officials to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest.”

“At his hearing, he answered questions for more than five hours and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions,” Grassley added. “We’ve examined every detail of his life, and he’s been subjected to relentless attacks on his character the whole time.”

President Trump, in announcing his nomination of Patel, promised his former aide would “end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border.”

“Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”