GOP Senate candidate calls for confirmation of Biden’s Supreme Court nominee

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You don’t see this every day – a Republican Senate candidate calling for the confirmation of President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

But federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will make history next month if, as expected, she’s confirmed by the Senate as the first Black female on the nation’s highest court. 

And Republican Senate candidate Christina Nolan is hoping to make history in November as Vermont’s first elected female senator.

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Nolan, a former U.S. attorney in Vermont, on Monday called for Brown’s confirmation.

"I have been impressed with Judge Jackson’s performance and support her confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. She has the required legal experience, temperament and clear understanding of the judicial branch’s role interpreting the law," Nolan said in a statement.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

And she emphasized that "as a former prosecutor, I will always treat each judicial nominee with the respect they deserve, and vote for or against them based solely on their qualifications even if I may not agree with every decision they’ve ever made."

Nolan chided both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, saying "politics should play no role in the confirmation process, a lesson that Washington politicians on both sides have sadly strayed from in recent years."

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Several Republican Senate candidates in recent days have issued statements criticizing Jackson. But Nolan highlighted that "diversity is crucially important in all facets of public life. As a candidate to become Vermont’s first female senator, I believe Judge Jackson will bring much-needed diversity to the highest court in the land, and hope that she is confirmed swiftly."

Vermont is one of the bluest states in the nation and President Biden carried the state by 35 points in the 2020 election.

"A hard right Republican can never win an election in Vermont," longtime GOP consultant Tom Rath told Fox News. "On this issue, Nolan’s found some room to move toward the middle."

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Rath, a former attorney general in neighboring New Hampshire who's a veteran of numerous presidential campaigns, noted that Nolan appears to be saying to Vermont voters that you can elect "a conservative Republican who acts reasonably on social issues" and that she’s "creating space for herself" from her party.

The 42-year-old Nolan, a lifelong Vermonter, had the backing of Leahy and Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont when she was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2017 in becoming the first female U.S. attorney in the state’s history.

Former U.S. attorney in Vermont Christine Nolan launches a Republican run for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, on Tuesday Feb. 22, 2022. (Christine Nolan Senate campaign)

Nolan is the only major Republican to date to jump into the Senate race. If she wins the Aug. 7 GOP primary, she’ll likely face Democratic Rep. Peter Welch in November’s general election. The 74-year-old Welch, a former longtime state lawmaker who has held Vermont’s at-large House seat in Congress for a decade and a half, is the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic primary.

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And in a heavily Democratic leaning state that last elected a Republican to the Senate 22 years ago – when moderate GOP Sen. Jim Jeffords was re-elected – Welch would be considered the favorite to win the open seat contest. But in a rough political cycle for Democrats as they try to defend their razor-thin majority in the Senate, Nolan may have a shot at pulling off  an upset.