Texas Senators’ Picks for Federal Judgeships Sent to White House

A Kirkland & Ellis partner and a former chief counsel to Sen. Ted Cruz (R) are among recommended judicial nominees Texas’ two Republican senators have sent to the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Erin Nealy Cox, the former US attorney for the Northern District of Texas, has been recommended for a Dallas federal judgeship, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Andrew Davis, a former chief counsel for Sen. Ted Cruz (R), is the pick to serve as a federal judge in Austin, those people said. He beat out Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan for the seat, as well as Dustin Howell, a magistrate judge at the Austin courthouse.

The White House will have final say on the picks for the seats in the state’s Western, Southern, and Northern districts. There are currently 10 judicial vacancies across those three federal districts, teeing up President Donald Trump to deepen his bench of appointees in the state.

Cox is currently a Kirkland & Ellis partner. She previously worked as an assistant US attorney for the district and served in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy.

Cox has faced some conservative pushback over the prospect of her appointment. As US attorney on Jan. 6, 2021, she tweeted that those who stormed the Capitol that day “are anarchists, not patriots” who should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” President Donald Trump issued blanket pardons for those rioters, and many of them are his supporters.

Davis is a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn, one of the law firms hired by Harvard as it fights the Trump administration in court. He’s not on the litigation team for those cases.

Waco, McAllen

The senators have also recommended Chris Wolfe, a local judge in Tarrant County, for a seat in Waco, according to the three people. Wolfe attended college and law school at Baylor University, which is in the same city where he’d be the sole US district judge. The courthouse where he sits now is in Fort Worth, about 90 miles north of Waco.

Arthur “Rob” Jones, a longtime federal prosecutor, is the recommended pick for a federal judgeship in the southern border courthouse in McAllen, according to three people familiar with the matter. Jones is currently the executive assistant US attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

Cox, Davis, Wolfe, and Jones didn’t immediately return requests for comment. Spokespeople for Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) didn’t immediately have comment, and the White House also didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Nicholas Ganjei, another former chief counsel to Cruz, was also a recommended nominee sent to the White House. His potential nomination appears to be advancing, as the Senate Judiciary Committee received a questionnaire for him.

Ganjei has been serving as the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas after being appointed by the administration in January. The district’s federal judges in May permanently appointed him to the role.

A spokesperson for the Southern District of Texas’s US attorney’s office declined to comment on Ganjei and Jones, and Ganjei didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Two more vacancies have opened up in the Dallas federal court since the senators began considering nominees earlier this year. The senators are currently accepting applications for those two seats and another in McAllen, and members of their bipartisan commission—the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee—will vet potential nominees.

Trump has already nominated Ryan Raybould, a former chief counsel to Cornyn, to be US attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

No other nominees for Texas’s other three US attorney roles have been announced.