What is a cloture vote?
Cloture is basically a vote to go ahead on a vote, a procedural oddity of the Senate that allows a majority leader to “push past a recalcitrant minority,†as Pew Research Center explains. Cloture is a “is a blunt tool for managing the Senate,†as Brookings Institution’s Sarah Binder put it.
Traditionally, 60 senators must vote for a cloture motion to pass, but Democrats, in 2013, and Republicans, in 2017, invoked the “nuclear option,†which allows a simple majority of just 51 senators to approve it (even though official Senate rules still say 60 votes are needed).
Cloture votes are now more prevalent
In the 2013-14 Congress, after Barack Obama won his second term, there was a massive rise in cloture motions. They more than doubled to 252 from 115 in the previous session. In 2013-14, a Republican minority led by McConnell filibustered dozens of Obama nominees, and Democrats used cloture votes to push past them.
https://qz.com/1413228/what-is-a-cloture-vote-and-why-is-mcconnell-is-using-it-for-the-kavanaugh-vote/