The Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe on Thursday to serve as the director of the C.I.A., installing him atop the spy agency that he has pledged to make more aggressive.
The vote was 74 to 25, and several Democrats joined all Republicans present in confirming him.
The support Mr. Ratcliffe received from Democrats reflects the evolution of American politics. During the first Trump administration, Mr. Ratcliffe received no support from Democrats, and his qualifications were questioned, when he was nominated to be the director of national intelligence.
But five years later, views of Mr. Ratcliffe have shifted. Unlike some of President Trump’s picks for other cabinet posts, Mr. Ratcliffe is considered to be well qualified for his position. His views on national security issues hew closely to those of the Senate Republican majority.
Senate Republicans had hoped to confirm Mr. Ratcliffe and several other nominees earlier in the week. But Democrats, expressing reservations about some picks, have slowed the push after the Senate quickly confirmed Marco Rubio to be secretary of state on a 99-to-0 vote on Monday.
As director of national intelligence in 2020, Mr. Ratcliffe declassified material on Russian election interference despite concerns from Democrats who believed that the release would endanger sources and methods. And at least two Democrats raised questions about those decisions in his confirmation hearing.
Republican allies of Mr. Trump had sought the material, believing that it undermined the case that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 election on behalf of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Ratcliffe responded in the hearing that most of his decisions as director of national intelligence had “aged very well.”
Mr. Trump has enthusiastically recounted Mr. Ratcliffe’s criticism of former intelligence officials who contended that information from Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
But some of Mr. Ratcliffe’s stances have gained bipartisan support. His warnings about Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence efforts in the 2020 election were largely supported by the Biden administration.
His view that the United States failed to pay adequate attention to China during the first part of this century has now been widely embraced. Mr. Ratcliffe, in turn, pledged to build on the efforts of William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., to create a China center and increase the budget for collecting intelligence in China.
Mr. Ratcliffe has promised a more aggressive C.I.A., one that is unafraid to undertake covert operations. Unsurprisingly, he would not discuss what kinds of operations he might embrace.
“I will unapologetically empower the most talented, hardest working and most courageous risk-takers and innovators to protect the American people and advance America’s interest, and I will not tolerate anything or anyone that distracts from our mission,” he said.
During his hearing, Democrats asked about Mr. Ratcliffe’s willingness to “speak truth to power,” prodding him to pledge to give Mr. Trump unvarnished intelligence reports even if the president did not want to hear them.
Several Senate Republicans asked about Section 702, a law that allows the government to collect — on domestic soil and without a warrant — the communications of targeted foreigners abroad, including when those people are interacting with Americans.
While Mr. Trump has been skeptical of the provision, Mr. Ratcliffe has long embraced it and told lawmakers he would work toward its reauthorization.
It is not clear exactly what Mr. Ratcliffe will make his first order of business, but he promised lawmakers in his confirmation hearing to review two thorny intelligence issues that bedeviled both the Biden administration and the first Trump administration: the origin of the virus that causes Covid and the mysterious ailments known as Havana syndrome that spies and diplomats have reported for years.
The Biden administration reviewed both issues, and Mr. Ratcliffe has said he will take a new look.
