3 Senate Dems Vote To Advance Election Denier To Lifetime Court SeatThree Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted with Republicans to advance a judicial nominee who refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and at least one judicial advocacy group is furious about it.Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) all voted Thursday to send President Donald Trump’s nominee, Sheria Akins Clarke — who is up for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina — to the full Senate for her confirmation vote.Like all of Trump’s nominees to lifetime federal judgeships, Clarke refused to say Trump lost the 2020 election in her submitted responses to questions from members of the judicial panel. She also refused to denounce the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it would be "inappropriate" to characterize the events of that day because it is “a significant matter of political debate and also involves cases that are currently being litigated.”Clarke previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney at the Department of Justice, and as staff director for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform under former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).Josh Orton, the president of Demand Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group, ripped Democrats for helping to advance Clarke’s nomination.“This nominee, along with the 37 Trump judges already confirmed, disqualified herself by submitting to a political litmus test from Trump to prove loyalty,” Orton said in a statement. “Yet in a midterm election year, just as Democrats are finding their voice standing up to Donald Trump, Senators Durbin, Whitehouse, and Coons yet again voted to enable Trump’s continued attacks on the rule of law.”“In a time of crisis, these three senators have chosen a delusion of normalcy over their obligation to their country, their constituents, their party, and the Constitution,” Orton said.A Coons spokesperson said the senator voted to advance Clarke’s nomination because he judges every nominee “on their qualifications and integrity.”“Applying that test has led him to oppose nearly every judicial nominee of President Trump,” the spokesperson said. “However, in reviewing Ms. Clarke’s long career in public service, including her tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Carolina during the Biden administration, he judged her to be a qualified candidate like several of his Democratic colleagues.”Aides to Durbin and Whitehouse did not respond to requests for comment.