A contingent of Democrats joined Republicans to confirm a former House lawyer and federal prosecutor nominated by President Donald Trump to the South Carolina federal bench.
The Senate voted 52-38 on Tuesday to confirm Sheria Akins Clarke to the US District Court for the District of South Carolina.
The Nelson Mullins partner is the first Black woman to be tapped for a federal judgeship in Trump’s second term, a rarity for this president in his overall judicial picks.
Some Democrats have backed a handful of Trump judicial nominees since he returned to office in 2025, including after a push by progressive groups to end such support.
Demand Justice has said Democratic senators in voting yes make it easier for Trump to “trample the rule of law,” fearing his judicial selections only would be loyal to him.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and outside progressives have expressed frustration with Trump judicial nominees who refuse to say the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, and who uniformly rely on constitutional processes in saying Joe Biden was made president after the 2020 election, rather than directly stating that Biden defeated Trump.
“All federal judges need to be loyal to the law and the rights of the people–not to the President’s personal or political agenda,” Demand Justice President Josh Orton said in a statement after the vote.
Judiciary Committee members Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island were among eight Democrats voting for Clarke in the Republican-controlled chamber. The others included Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman; Rubén Gallego of Arizona; Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire; Martin Heinrich of New Mexico; and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Clarke served three years as a prosecutor in South Carolina’s US attorney’s office and worked for over a decade in the US House.
She replaces Robert Harwell, a George W. Bush appointee who semi-retired in 2024.