Justice Samuel Alito hasn’t tipped his hat on retiring just yet, but Senate Democrats are already entrenched in opposing the confirmation of a successor that would deliver President Donald Trump his fourth lifetime appointment to the high court.

Democrats need to first retake the majority and for a vacancy to arise. But with the party’s once long-shot prospects of sweeping the November midterm elections improving and speculation of Alito’s retirement swirling after the 76-year-old conservative justice was hospitalized last month, Trump and GOP leaders are “prepared” for a replacement before the elections while Republicans have full control of Washington.

Democrats are eager to scuttle that outcome, should they get the chance, citing Republicans under then-Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, blocking Obama-era Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. The notion that Trump could fill vacancies of one or more aging justices is becoming a midterm rallying cry for both parties.

“Under the circumstances, obviously, we should not be proceeding with a new” nominee, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, who some outside progressive groups want to replace Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, as Democratic leader.

Van Hollen said the “McConnell formula” was reason enough to resist another Trump appointee to the nation’s highest bench that slants 6-3 in conservatives’ favor.

“What Republicans sort of taught us with that is it’s just about kind of a pure power move,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, said. “It’s hard to answer the hypothetical, but we learned a lesson that we’re not going to forget.”

McConnell, retiring from Congress at the end of his term that concludes in January 2027, blocked Garland’s nomination for most of 2016 following the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. The move paved the way for Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation in 2017.

At the time, McConnell recounted past statements from Democrats, including Joe Biden when he was a senator, to argue there was a “long-standing tradition” against filling vacancies in a presidential election year, particularly with the Senate controlled by the opposing party of the president.

Republicans are keen to avoid the nightmare scenario that plagued Democrats in 2020, when the death of 87-year-old liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg allowed Trump to nominate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Her confirmation only further tilted the court from a 5-4 conservative majority to its current 6-3 majority.

Justice Clarence Thomas is also among the court’s aging conservative members at 77 years old, but has not been the subject of the same retirement speculation as Alito. Chief Justice John Roberts, the other conservative member, is 71.

Although not explicit in their remarks that Alito should retire, Republicans and the president aren’t hiding their “preference” that he cement his legacy and the GOP-led Senate secure a conservative successor while they can.

“These guys, they make their own decisions,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, told the Washington Examiner. “But if you were going to do something, obviously doing it when we have an opportunity — control of the Senate and the White House and everything else — is obviously, from a timing standpoint, would be certainly our preference.”

Trump said in a Fox Business interview he already had a short list of possible candidates and acknowledged the job is “probably not easy to give up for people” when “they reach a certain age.”

“It could be two, could be three, could be one,” Trump said. “I don’t know — I’m prepared to do it. But when you mention Alito, he is a great justice.”

But not all Democrats were eager to endorse the hypothetical power play of thwarting a Trump nominee so far out from the elections — or at least not publicly.

Centrist Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA, urged Democrats to “win elections” if they’re dissatisfied with the Supreme Court and chastised those wanting to expand the 9-seat bench to add liberal justices. And Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), set to become the second-ranked Democrat next year, said he lacked “any constructive thoughts.”

“I don’t do the ‘promising retaliation for something that hasn’t even happened yet,’” Schatz said.

David Sivak contributed to this report.