Senate confirms 107 nominees in largest bloc vote to date
The U.S. Senate recently confirmed a group of 107 nominees for various positions in the Trump governance in the largest bloc vote to date. Among those confirmed is Herschel Walker, a former football star and controversial ex-Senate candidate, who is heading to the Bahamas as an ambassador. The confirmation included more than two dozen ambassador appointments and other senior leadership roles intended to clear the backlog caused by delayed confirmations during the early months of the Trump administration.
Republicans, frustrated with previous Senate delays, invoked a “nuclear option” last month to bypass minority party obstruction and speed up the confirmation process. Notable nominees confirmed include trump’s former personnel chief Sergio Gor as ambassador to India, Brandon Judd as ambassador to Chile, and Bill Bazzi as ambassador to Tunisia.
The process also saw some exceptions, like the separate vote for Hung Cao, nominated as undersecretary of the Navy, due to opposition over his qualifications. This reflects new Senate rules allowing GOP senators to veto certain nominees to protect majority party interests.
The confirmations mark continued efforts by Senate Republicans to install Trump’s team despite partisan challenges, and include various assistant and deputy agency roles as well as prosecutor nominations. The move also follows a pattern of appointing unsuccessful GOP Senate candidates to administration posts.
Senate confirms Herschel Walker and 106 other nominees in largest bloc vote to date
Herschel Walker is headed to the Bahamas after the Senate confirmed 107 nominees to posts in the Trump administration.
Walker, the scandal-ridden ex-Senate candidate, is one of more than two dozen ambassadors approved in a bloc vote Tuesday, the second since Republicans changed Senate rules to allow multiple nominees to be voted on at once.
Republicans also confirmed Trump personnel chief Sergio Gor as U.S. ambassador to India; Brandon Judd, the former Border Patrol Union president, to be ambassador to Chile; and Bill Bazzi, the Arab American mayor of Dearborn Heights who endorsed Trump in 2024, as ambassador to Tunisia.
The list, which cleared the Senate 51-47, brings Republicans closer to erasing the backlog built up during the first eight months of the Trump administration as Democrats ground the confirmation process to a crawl.
The most senior positions were filled without unanimous consent or voice votes, two procedural workarounds that allow leadership to skip the cumbersome Senate confirmation process. But Republicans, frustrated with the blockade, went “nuclear” last month to sidestep the minority party completely, confirming 48 in their first batch.
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On Tuesday, Republicans continued to round out the ranks of Trump’s senior leadership, confirming assistant or deputy positions at various agencies. The Senate also processed more than a dozen prosecutor nominees ready for a floor vote, including Moore Capito, the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.
The confirmation of Walker, a retired football star whose Georgia Senate campaign was marred by allegations of domestic abuse, marks the latest example of Trump nominating unsuccessful GOP Senate candidates to administration posts, including Sam Brown, now a Veterans Affairs official, and Mehmet Oz, the current Medicaid chief.
Hung Cao, who failed to unseat Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) last year in Virginia, was part of the bloc of nominees under consideration on Tuesday, but his name was split out as a stand-alone vote due to opposition from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) over his qualifications.
The decision is part of multiple “protocols” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) instituted to protect the majority party’s voting rights. Any GOP senator is allowed to veto a name from the list of nominees.
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Cao was confirmed separately last week as undersecretary of the Navy, the No. 2 civilian post under Navy Secretary John Phelan.
Gor’s nomination is notable for his involvement in the falling out between Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Gor reportedly pushed out Musk’s pick for NASA administrator, part of a chain of events that infuriated Musk and soured his alliance with the president.
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