By DAN MERICA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Demand Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary, is preparing to bombard Capitol Hill in the closing weeks of the 118th Congress with a message: “Do whatever it takes” to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees for second Donald Trump’s presidency appears on the horizon.

The Republican president-elect’s victory and the GOP takeover of the Senate left Democratic control of the chamber just seven weeks away.

Democrats confirmed 213 of Biden’s judicial nominees during his presidency. Several dozen more are still pending. In addition to those confirmations, Senate Democrats will need to stay in Washington much longer than they planned while also overcoming a razor-thin margin that has at times hampered them on Biden’s other priorities.

Trump focused heavily on filling court vacancies in his first term, securing the confirmation of 234 judges, including three members of the Supreme Court. As the party charts its path forward after a major defeat that would knock it out of power in January, Democrats are trying to block it from being given more opportunities to appoint conservative judges.

“Senate Democrats can’t just give up and go home just because they lost the chamber,” said Skye Perryman, a senior adviser to Demand Justice, which will include widespread lobbying, Capitol Hill events and targeted advertising. “It is now even more critical that good, qualified, fair-minded judges be confirmed so that ordinary people can defend their rights and protect our Constitution.”

By the way United States Courts website17 pending judicial nominees have emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee, with eight awaiting committee votes and six awaiting committee hearings. White House announces new judicial nominees October And November.

The Senate returned from its election break this week. Senate calendar The legislature is out of town around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. But the schedule can change, and it’s common for senators to leave Washington for long weekends.

The push will already come across Full program in the Senatemore. In addition to the approvals, the legislature will be tasked with providing more disaster relief after a series of deadly storms, passing the annual defense policy bill and keeping the government funded and open.

Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both independents, are leaving the chamber at the end of this session. And if Republicans unite to oppose Biden’s pick, Manchin in question will not support non-bipartisan judicial appointments, narrowing the Democratic lead.

One of the candidates was April Perry. approved Monday evening for the northern part of Illinois.

“We’re going to make sure that as much as we can is done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said when asked about his effort to pressure Senate Democrats to do what they can to confirm these nominees.

Trump on Sunday urged Republicans to oppose Schumer’s efforts. “No Judge should be confirmed during this time because Democrats want to attack their own Judge while Republicans fight for Leadership,” he wrote.

“Delaying the confirmation of well-qualified, experienced judges creates a real-life burden on voters and leads to a backlog of criminal cases, which means there is every pressing reason for Republicans and Democrats to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench.” .” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the following in response to Trump. “There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law.”