On Thursday, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, emphasized his opposition to the Biden Administration’s nomination of Ryan Park to the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals. 

“I know that this nominee has no prayer of getting confirmed by the full U.S. Senate unless Chuck Schumer and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle play a game and wait for a funeral or an illness to cause an absentee problem on our side,” said Tillis on the Senate floor. “I confirmed this morning what I said in this hearing a couple of months ago. I have the votes to defeat this nominee on the floor.”

Park is currently the solicitor general of North Carolina. He appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this summer.

“The White House counsel proved to be absolutely incompetent,” said Tillis. “In this process, they put forth a list of four nominees that they wanted me to choose from that included Ted Budd’s opponent in a Senate election, someone who is patently partisan and has a track record to substantiate it, and they think that’s a serious list for me to choose from. And then, when I provide them a list of four, they say, not only are they not fit for the Fourth Circuit, but we wouldn’t even consider them for a district court judge. I did my homework, and I built relationships on the other side of the aisle.”

Park’s nomination proceeded with an 11-10 vote on Thursday, without Republican support. According to a report by Bloomberg Law, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said that the administration conducted an “extensive consultation process” with North Carolina Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd. 

“No one should be surprised about Sen. Tillis’ opposition to this nomination,” Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “He warned colleagues back in August that he planned to line up votes to block Ryan Park from the Court of Appeals. At the time, he blamed the Biden administration for pursuing the nomination even though it was doomed to fail.”

Park’s nomination now goes to the Senate floor. Democrats are pushing to confirm as many of the Biden administration’s pending nominations as possible before they lose their majority in January when Republicans take over and the new Congress is sworn in. The Biden administration has more than two dozen pending nominations for district and circuit courts. 

“Now it will be interesting to see whether Tillis really has the votes to keep Park off the 4th Circuit bench,” remarked Kokai. “Democrats who pledged to back Tillis this summer might have changed their tune given recent developments. With the pending change in partisan control of the Senate and the return of Donald Trump to the White House, Democrats are running out of time to place their preferred candidates in high-level judicial positions. That might be enough of an incentive for them to stick together, even if some of them had been receptive to Tillis’ overtures in the summer.”

The Senate also voted 49-44 on Thursday to end the debate, known as ‘cloture,’ on the nomination of Embry Kidd to the 11th Circuit Court. A confirmation vote has been scheduled for Monday, November 18th.