President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court kicked into gear a public relations campaign designed to drum up support for the longtime judge, one that will carry the nominee into his confirmation battle.
In the days following Trump’s prime-time Monday announcement, Kavanaugh’s former clerks, old classmates, and fellow carpool parents have taken to the airwaves and the pages of the nation’s major newspapers to tout his judicial credentials, academic record and character.
“Judge Kavanaugh has been a role model to us personally a well as professionally. He is unfailingly warm and gracious with his colleagues no matter how strongly they disagree about a case, and he is well-liked and respected by judges and lawyers across the ideological spectrum as a result,” 34 of Kavanaugh’s former clerks wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
After working for Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the clerks wrote that many pursued different career paths, working as prosecutors, professors, or lawyers in different sectors.
They also noted their diversity in political affiliation and judicial philosophy. But said despite their differences, “we are united in this: our admiration and fondness for Judge Kavanaugh run deep.”
The major driving force behind the efforts to boost Kavanaugh’s nomination is the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative judicial advocacy group founded in 2005.
“We really are the central hub or umbrella for over 200 conservative and libertarian groups who are very engaged and active on the Supreme Court nomination,” Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel and policy director, told the Washington Examiner. “We serve to help as the group that has this as its main full-time focus.”
Judicial Crisis Network played a major role during the confirmation battle last year, spending $10 million in support of Justice Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated to the Supreme Court to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat.
After Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement late last month, the group wasted no time in laying the groundwork for the confirmation fight, launching a seven-figure nationwide ad campaign highlighting Trump’s Supreme Court contenders.
On Monday, the group rolled out a $1.4 million ad buy designed to introduce the country to Kavanaugh and urge his confirmation.
Judicial Crisis Network also launched ConfirmKavanaugh.com, a website that providers visitors with information about his background and reasons why he should be confirmed.
The stakes surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination have already inspired a bruising fight, as Kennedy served as the court’s swing vote and Kavanaugh’s confirmation would shift the court’s ideological leanings to the right.
“We’re seeing even more groups engaged this time,” Severino said. “Obviously, this is going to be an enormous fight.”
Severino said Judicial Crisis Network and other groups backing Kavanaugh’s confirmation are watching to determine where the attacks against Kavanaugh are focused, be it his judicial records, writings or personal life, and plan to respond accordingly.
“It’s whack-a-mole,” she said.
So far, the efforts to support Kavanaugh’s nomination has extended not only to his clerks, but also to Kavanaugh’s former classmates at Georgetown Preparatory, an all-boys Jesuit school in Maryland, who vouched for his credentials in a letter to Senate leaders circulated by the White House this week.
“Given our diverse backgrounds and beliefs, we acknowledge that not all of us may agree with each of his conclusions or decisions, now with the positions that various groups may espouse during his confirmation process,” the more than 100 signers of the letter wrote. “Nevertheless, we are united in the belief that Brett will discharge his duty in the same manner he always has: impartially, justly and with intellectual honesty and consistency.”
While conservatives are engaged in efforts to promote Kavanaugh, Senate Democrats and liberal advocacy groups have come out swinging against him, seizing on three issues designed to boost opposition to his nomination and galvanize voters: the future of Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, and his writings on special counsel investigations.
Liberal groups have also launched campaigns designed to pressure red-state Democrats and two Republican senators who are viewed as pivotal votes, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, to vote against his nomination.
Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Demand Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group, are expected to shell out the most money with hopes of derailing Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Some Senate Democrats have already vowed to oppose Kavanaugh, but conservative groups and Senate Republicans believe they’ll be victorious at the end of the confirmation battle.
“There will be the usual attempts to sully his reputation not only in the Senate but outside the Senate,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told reporters Wednesday, “but he’ll be able to handle it and I have every confidence he’ll be confirmed.”
