US President Donald Trump’s administration is accelerating efforts to secure the confirmation of federal judicial nominees before the end of the year, amid uncertainty over whether Republicans will retain control of the Senate after the November 3 midterm elections.

Trump announced 13 judicial nominees over nine days in August while the Senate was on recess. Six of the nominees are scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, while five others are awaiting consideration by the full Senate.

Federal judges are confirmed by a simple majority vote in the Senate.

Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber, but Democrats could gain control following the midterm elections. Such a shift could affect the pace of judicial confirmations when the new Senate takes office next year.

“You always approach this with the concern that you could lose control of the Senate,” said Robert Luther, a George Mason University law professor who worked on judicial nominations in the White House Counsel’s Office during Trump’s first term.

Luther and other legal experts said the current push could represent one of Trump’s final major opportunities to shape the federal judiciary, particularly as the number of judicial vacancies and expected retirements has declined.

“Even with the Supreme Court vacancy, I expect the next two years to be the slowest period for judicial nominations under Trump,” Luther said.

The effort to fill judicial vacancies before a possible change in Senate control mirrors the situation faced by former President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Republicans did not regain control of the Senate that year, allowing Biden to finish his presidency with 235 confirmed judges, one more than Trump appointed during his first term.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has secured confirmation of another 54 judges, bringing the total number of judges confirmed during his two terms to nearly one-third of the federal judiciary.

Trump’s judicial appointments have contributed to a more conservative composition of the federal courts, including through his three Supreme Court nominees, who form part of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.

Since 2021, the Supreme Court has issued major rulings involving abortion access, affirmative action and gun rights, among other issues.

However, judges appointed by Trump have not consistently ruled in favour of his administration. Trump criticised his Supreme Court appointees on Tuesday after the justices rejected an administration-backed rule restricting mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections.

Among the nominees scheduled to appear before the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday is Zach West, who received support from conservative legal activists for his work in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.

West has defended abortion restrictions and argued that Oklahoma could not exclude religious schools from participating in its charter school programme.

Another nominee expected to be considered this month is Arkansas-based US District Judge Lee Rudofsky, whom the White House has nominated to serve on the St Louis-based 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rudofsky issued a significant ruling four years ago that weakened a landmark voting rights law. If confirmed, his appointment would give Trump-appointed judges a majority on the appeals court, potentially making the 8th Circuit the first of the 13 federal appeals courts with such a majority.