Here Are All the Republican Senators Who Previously Voted to Confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

On Friday, shortly after President Joe Biden nominated federal appeals court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, Republicans were already very upset. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, tweeted that the choice “means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.” The official GOP Twitter account vowed that Republicans would “make sure voters know how radical his pick really is.”

Those with longer memories will note that Graham twice voted to confirm Jackson to the federal bench—first to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2013, and then again to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals less than a year ago. His fellow Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined Graham in that vote last summer. “I think she’s qualified for the job,” Graham said of Jackson in 2021. “She has a different philosophy than I do, but it’s been that way the whole time.”

These three are hardly the only GOP senators with on-the-record support for Jackson. In 2013, the Senate confirmed Jackson to the D.C. District Court by voice vote—that is, with no noted opposition. Voice votes don’t require a formal tallying of yeas and nays, but Senate procedure allows anyone the opportunity to call for one. Many of those Republican senators are still serving today, and if any of them opposed Jackson’s confirmation to a life-tenured position back then, they for some reason decided to keep it a secret.

Here is the full list of Republican senators who have previously supported Jackson’s confirmation to the federal court bench—support they might have to explain should they suddenly, mysteriously choose to oppose her this time around.

Chuck Grassley (Iowa)

Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Richard Shelby (Alabama)

Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)

Susan Collins (Maine)—twice!

Mike Crapo (Idaho)

John Cornyn (Texas)

Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)—twice!

Lindsay Graham (South Carolina)—twice!

Richard Burr (North Carolina)

John Thune (South Dakota)

John Barrasso (Wyoming)