Senate confirms Sheria Clarke after hearing clash over the 2020 election

On May 19, 2026, the Senate confirmed Sheria Akins Clarke to the U.S. District Court for South Carolina by a 52-38 vote, giving President Trump another lifetime judge after Clarke refused at her hearing to say who won the 2020 election. Eight Democrats joined Republicans even after Senator Richard Blumenthal called the nominees' scripted answers Orwellian and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had mocked them as preposterous. The vote showed how the post-2017 simple-majority rule lets a party with 52 seats move a judicial nominee even when the minority argues the nominee failed a basic democratic test (Senate roll call; C-SPAN; Blumenthal; SC Daily Gazette; Post and Courier; Graham release).