Courts
Trump’s judge nominee, who would add diversity to SC’s federal bench, headed to final Senate vote

Attorney Sheria Clarke is a native of Lynchburg, Va. and earned her bachelor’s degree from Liberty University.

By: Tiffany Tan - May 1, 2026
1:28 pm

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COLUMBIA — A Greenville attorney is one step closer to filling a federal judge vacancy — and becoming the sixth racial minority in a half century seated on the U.S. District bench in South Carolina. ... The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15-7 Thursday to advance President Donald Trump’s nomination of Sheria Clarke to the full Senate.

“With extraordinary credentials, an impeccable character and a deep commitment to the rule of law, Ms. Clarke is exactly the kind of person who should be a federal judge,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a committee member, said in a statement after the vote. ... She also has the support of fellow South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who met with Clarke last October and asked if she was interested, according to her written responses to the committee’s questionnaire about her selection. She then met with Graham’s staff and White House attorneys before Trump called her Feb. 9 to say he’d chosen her, she wrote.

The Senate floor vote has not yet been scheduled, but Clarke is expected to get confirmed. ... Clarke, however, encountered some bumps during her March 25 confirmation hearing. Two Democratic senators criticized her for not giving straight answers to the question of who won the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

Echoing the response of Trump’s other judicial nominees at the hearing, Clarke attempted instead to explain the process, saying the Electoral College certifies the winner. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, and Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, described the nominees’ answers as canned and fed by their White House handlers. ... “They’re Orwellian in their denial of reality, and they are a subversion of this process,” Blumenthal said last month about the responses. “They also fundamentally show a complete lack of independence and backbone and impartiality, which are the fundamental requirements of a United States District Court judge.”

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