Senate confirms election-denier Sheria Clarke to SC district court

President Trump nominated Sheria Akins Clarke on February 12, 2026 to fill the sole vacancy on South Carolina's federal district court. Clarke, 44, is a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Greenville, a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina from 2021 to 2024, and a former congressional staffer who spent a decade on House committees including Ethics and Oversight. She is a graduate of Liberty University and the University of North Carolina School of Law.

The vacancy came after U.S. District Judge Bryan Harwell, a George W. Bush appointee, took senior status in 2024. If confirmed, Clarke would become the sixth Black judge ever to serve on South Carolina's federal district bench, according to Federal Judicial Center data.

At her March 25, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal pressed Clarke and three other Trump nominees with a direct question: who won the 2020 presidential election? Clarke refused to answer directly, saying instead that 'under our Constitution, the mechanism for electing a president' involves the Electoral College and congressional certification. She also declined to call the January 6 Capitol attack inappropriate, saying it would be 'inappropriate' to characterize the events because they involve 'ongoing litigation' and 'significant matters of political debate.'

Blumenthal called the four nominees' answers 'canned, pre-rehearsed, Orwellian in their denial of reality,' adding they were 'an insult to this committee' and showed 'a complete lack of independence, backbone, and impartiality.' Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told the nominees he hoped they realized 'how ridiculous the four of you look — spouting these preposterous, canned answers.'

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15-7 on a bipartisan basis to advance Clarke's nomination to the full Senate. Three Democrats on the committee voted yes, the same pattern that would repeat on the floor two weeks later. The committee vote came despite the criticism over her election-denial answers.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina's senior senator, championed Clarke throughout the process. Graham introduced her at her hearing, declared her "one of the most highly qualified candidates" he had seen for the federal bench, and said after her confirmation that she has "extraordinary credentials, an impeccable character, and a deep commitment to the rule of law."

On May 19, 2026, the full Senate voted 52-38 to confirm Clarke, with 10 senators not voting. A cloture motion to end debate passed 57-38 earlier that day at 11:44 a.m., with the final confirmation vote at 2:10 p.m. Eastern. Eight Democrats crossed party lines to vote yes: Sens. Dick Durbin (Illinois), John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), Ruben Gallego (Arizona), Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire), Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), Jack Reed (Rhode Island), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), and Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island).

Whitehouse's yes vote came two months after he called the nominees' answers 'preposterous' at the March hearing. Nomination Notes documented the contradiction.

The 52-38 margin reflects the direct impact of the Senate's nuclear option history. Under the rules that existed before 2013, a minority of 41 senators could filibuster any judicial nomination, requiring 60 votes to advance. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed that on November 21, 2013, invoking the nuclear option by a 52-48 party-line vote to lower the cloture threshold for all executive and judicial nominees below the Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell extended the nuclear option to Supreme Court nominees in April 2017 to confirm Neil Gorsuch.

With the current 52-seat Republican majority, Democrats could have blocked Clarke's confirmation under the old 60-vote rule. Under the post-2017 simple-majority standard, 38 no votes are not enough.

Demand Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group, documented Clarke's refusal alongside a broader pattern of evasion among Trump's second-term judicial nominees. All 44 nominees studied by the group gave answers about the 2020 election and January 6 that Demand Justice characterized as 'dishonest or misleading,' with responses so uniform that nominees often used nearly identical phrasing. Demand Justice president Josh Orton called the behavior 'essentially a political loyalty test.'

Alliance for Justice maintained a separate opposition profile on Clarke, cataloging her evasive hearing answers. AFJ also published a broader analysis of the pattern, noting that nominees appeared to be preserving their ability to avoid contradicting Trump on his two most politically sensitive claims.

Clarke's confirmation adds complexity because of who she is: the first Black woman Trump chose for the federal bench in his second term, and only the sixth Black judge in South Carolina's district court history. Supporters cited her prosecutorial record, congressional oversight experience, and status as a trailblazer for representation on a historically white bench. Sen. Tim Scott introduced her at her hearing, saying she is 'not only an accomplished attorney but a dedicated public servant.'

Critics argued her background doesn't change the core problem: a judge who won't affirm that Joe Biden won the 2020 election will preside over federal cases involving voting rights, election law, and civil rights in a state where those questions are live and contested.

The SC Daily Gazette reported that Clarke would join two other minority judges on a 10-active-judge bench: Joseph Dawson III, also a Trump appointee, and Jacquelyn Austin, confirmed by President Biden in 2024. South Carolina had three Black judges simultaneously between 2020 and 2022, when Margaret Seymour retired and Michelle Childs was elevated. Clarke's confirmation restores that count.

The District of South Carolina covers all 46 counties of the state through 11 divisions, with jurisdiction over federal criminal cases, civil rights suits, immigration matters, and large-scale civil litigation. Whoever sits on that bench shapes federal law enforcement priorities in a state of 5.4 million people.

Progressive groups escalated pressure on the eight Democrats who voted yes. Demand Justice had already run ads against Fetterman and Hassan in December 2025 after similar crossover votes on earlier Trump judicial nominees. WHYY reported that Fetterman was among the Democrats targeted for supporting Trump nominees. The confirmation of Clarke in a midterm election cycle drew sharp responses from the left flank of the Democratic Party, with critics arguing the votes hand Trump political cover while delivering lifetime judicial seats to nominees who passed his loyalty test.