Trump’s judicial nominees hit major snag courtesy of this Senate Republican

North Carolina Sen. Tillis blocking Trump’s Mississippi nominees

by Taylor Vance and Christa Dutton, NOTUS, Mississippi Today
November 12, 2025

A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi's nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized.

“Roger's one of my favorite people here, and, you know, it's just a matter of using the leverage people use every day here,” Tillis said.

Wicker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Lumbee is a group of indigenous people in North Carolina that has been seeking federal recognition as a tribe for over a century. But other federally recognized tribes have opposed the effort.

Tillis has been a vocal supporter of federal recognition for the Lumbee. He is not running for reelection in 2026, so next year will be his final opportunity to secure a bipartisan bill for the indigenous people.

President Donald Trump has also supported federal recognition for the Lumbee.

Most of North Carolina’s congressional delegation supports federal recognition of the Lumbee. Language granting them federal recognition was added to the House version of the Pentagon’s annual spending blueprint.

But language about the Lumbee was not included in the Senate’s version of the blueprint.

Tillis also said he is negotiating with Wicker over other issues, but he declined to say what the issues were.

In August, Trump nominated Robert Chamberlin and James Maxwell, both justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court, to vacant federal judgeships in northern Mississippi. Trump in July nominated Scott Leary and Baxter Kruger, his choices for U.S. attorney for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi, respectively.

None of the four nominees responded to requests for comment. Both Wicker and Mississippi’s other U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, support the nominees, though neither is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

This story is provided by a partnership between Mississippi Today and the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative, which seeks to help readers in local communities understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.