New Media Blitz Targets Democrats Who Back Trump Judge Picks (2)

A progressive advocacy group expanded a media blitz against selected Senate Democrats for supporting President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.

Demand Justice’s digital and billboard campaign so far targets four Judiciary Committee lawmakers who voted to advance Trump district court picks who declined to say definitely who won the 2020 presidential election.

The initial six-figure home-state ad buy announced over the weekend was aimed at Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chris Coons of Delaware. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota were added to the campaign after votes in committee on Thursday.

Demand Justice and other liberal groups have urged blanket opposition to the president’s judicial nominees from Democrats.

The organization under its new president has pledged to revive bold pressure tactics from the first Trump administration, including some that rankled Democrats.

“At a time when Donald Trump is weaponizing the Department of Justice to launch revenge prosecutions of his political enemies, Senate Democrats cannot bow to Trump by confirming his judges. Demand Justice is going to continue holding Democratic Senators accountable until they do everything they can to stand up to Trump’s attack on the rule of law,” Demand Justice President Josh Orton said in a statement.

Seven of the Judiciary panel’s 10 Democratic members have voted at least once to advance a Trump district pick. The other senators include Adam Schiff of California, Peter Welch of Vermont, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

Harold Mooty III for the Northern District of Alabama and Bill Lewis for the Middle District of Alabama are among the nominees Democrats supported last week.

Durbin and Schiff voted for Lewis. Durbin, Schiff, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, and Welch rounded out Democratic support for Mooty.

The nominations of Lindsey Ann Freeman for the Middle District of North Carolina; Matthew Orso for the Western District of North Carolina; and Susan Courtwright Rodriguez for the Western District of North Carolina also got bipartisan backing at Thursday’s committee meeting.

Durbin and Whitehouse voted for Freeman, Orso, and Courtwright Rodriguez. Klobuchar, Coons, and Hirono supported Courtwright Rodriguez. And Klobuchar also voted for Freeman.

Democrat support is inconsequential for the judicial picks, as Republicans who hold a 12-10 majority on the panel have voted as a bloc to advance all of Trump’s nominees.

But Demand Justice hope to make the case to Senate Democrats, and their constituents, that there’s a moral choice to be made—and that voters can hold their lawmakers accountable at the ballot box.

“Democrats, if they’re going to make the case to midterm voters that they will be a check on Trump’s runaway power and his abuses of power, they’re going to have to work a little harder to prove that they have what it takes,” Orton said at a Thursday news conference.

Orton also said they’re prepared to expand their campaigns to other platforms, including TV and paid media, if necessary. “We have the resources to hold them accountable if they keep not standing up to Trump,” he said.

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Republican-led Judiciary Committee, said he shares Demand Justice’s view that the Trump administration’s actions have been unprecedented, but he nonetheless defended a more nuanced approach to reviewing the nominees coming through the committee.

“They may not be normal times,” Durbin said, “But people are normal. They expect me to be careful and choose the best candidates I can choose. But to take a unequivocal position that I will oppose every nominee that comes out of this administration, I think, would destroy my credibility and any opportunity for bipartisanship.”