Democrats and demonstrators vented rage and resistance but the Senate rolled toward approving Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination Saturday as President Donald Trump and Republicans approached an election-season triumph in the most electrifying confirmation battle in years.

Capping a venomous struggle that transfixed Americans when it veered into claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted women in the 1980s and his fierce denials, the 53-year-old conservative's nomination was on track for afternoon approval. He seemed certain to win by a slender two votes in a near party-line roll call.

Trump weighed in Saturday morning on behalf of the man he nominated in July and who as justice would tilt the court rightward, possibly for decades. "Big day for America!" he tweeted.

Democrats paraded to a nearly empty Senate chamber overnight to lambast the nominee. They said he'd push the court farther right, including possible sympathetic rulings for Trump. And they said his record and fuming testimony at a now famous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing showed he lacked the fairness, temperament and even honesty to become a justice.

But the fight was defined by sexual assault accusations, especially Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that a drunken Kavanaugh tried raping her at a 1982 high school gathering. Kavanaugh vehemently denied all those claims.

All but one Republican lined up behind him, arguing that a truncated FBI investigation turned up no corroborating witnesses and that Kavanaugh had sterling credentials for the court. Exactly one month from elections in which House and Senate control are in play, Democrats tried making sure that female voters were paying attention.