WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin announced Friday that he plans to vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, likely clearing the path for President Joe Biden’s historic nominee to be confirmed. But Democratic hopes of securing significant Republican support for Jackson’s nomination appear to be fading.
The West Virginia Democrat was a key vote to watch because he has bucked his party on some of its top domestic priorities. But he has yet to vote against any of Biden’s judicial nominees, and he said he will also support Jackson, who would become the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
“I am confident Judge Jackson is supremely qualified and has the disposition necessary to serve as our nation’s next Supreme Court Justice,” Manchin said in a statement, which came after four days of hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
