Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) cast a key affirmative vote to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. CNN’s Manu Raju reports on Cassidy’s decisive vote.

WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic and activist lawyer, appeared on track to become the nation's health secretary after winning the crucial support of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor who says Kennedy has assured him he would not topple the nation's childhood vaccination program.

Kennedy’s HHS nomination advanced to the full Senate after Republican senator Bill Cassidy, a potential swing vote, voted in his favor.

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The fate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to run HHS may rest with a Republican wrestling with his training as a physician and his instincts as a politician.

In a starkly partisan vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee advanced Kennedy’s nomination 14-13, sending his bid to oversee the $1.7 trillion U.S. Health and Human Services agency for a full vote on the Senate floor.