Oklahoma Sen. Alan Armstrong has withdrawn his support for President Donald Trump’s choice for a federal trial court in the state, putting the nomination in doubt during the final weeks of Republican control of the Senate. A spokesperson for Armstrong confirmed Wednesday that the senator now opposes Zachary Paul West, Reuters reported. The Senate Judiciary Committee had put off a vote on the nominee a day earlier.

West, a lawyer in the Oklahoma attorney general’s office, was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. He had already appeared before the committee. The delay does not remove him from consideration: the panel’s next agenda still lists him for its Nov. 17 meeting. But a date on the calendar does not guarantee that the committee will vote, or that it will send the nomination to the full Senate.

A senator reverses his position

Armstrong previously returned a blue slip, the form the Judiciary Committee sends to senators to ask their position on judicial nominees from their states. That response signaled support for West. On Wednesday, Armstrong told the Associated Press that his objection concerned qualifications compared with other candidates he said had been suggested. He said the White House had largely disregarded those recommendations. He did not identify the other candidates in the account.

West has worked in the state attorney general’s office since 2017, including as solicitor general and as director of special litigation, according to Reuters. His work for the state has included litigation on abortion restrictions and religious charter schools. Reuters said West did not respond to a request for comment on the delay. A White House official told the outlet the administration remained confident its two pending Oklahoma judicial nominees would be confirmed.

Where the committee vote fits

The committee agenda for Tuesday’s meeting included West alongside several other district court nominees. A committee vote would determine whether to advance his nomination to the full Senate. The postponement leaves West at that earlier stage, even though he has answered senators’ questions at a hearing. The president nominates federal judges and the Senate provides advice and consent. The committee’s review is part of how the Senate decides whether to give that consent.

Armstrong does not sit on the Judiciary Committee. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who does, indicated support for Armstrong’s position, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the nomination process. The AP separately reported that Tillis helped delay the vote. Reuters said that, on the current count, West needs the votes of all 12 Republicans on the panel to advance. That gives a committee member’s opposition more immediate effect than a statement by a senator who cannot vote in committee.

Why home-state support matters

Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has defended the blue slip as a way to ensure senators have a voice in who becomes a federal trial judge in their states. It is a committee practice that operates within the Senate’s constitutional confirmation role. A returned form does not guarantee confirmation, and a change of position after a nominee has had a hearing raises a different practical question from withholding the form at the outset.

Support for the practice has not been confined to Republicans. Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee’s senior Democrat, defended it when Trump called for Grassley to drop it in 2025, pointing to his own use of the custom while chairing the panel. In this case the initial support cleared a hurdle for a nominee picked by a president of Armstrong’s own party. His reversal has made the committee’s next vote, rather than the original form, the immediate obstacle.

The seat has been vacant since Judge Ronald A. White took senior status on Jan. 27, according to the federal judiciary’s vacancy list, which records West’s formal nomination on Sept. 14. Senior status permits a judge to keep hearing cases while the seat is open to a successor. White is still included in a district order allocating some of the court’s work.

A change in Oklahoma’s Senate delegation

Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Armstrong in March after Markwayne Mullin left the Senate to become homeland security secretary. Republican Kevin Hern, elected to fill the seat, is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 30, Reuters reported. The outlet said Hern’s office did not answer a request for comment about whether he would support West. The pending change means the home-state senator whose support is in question will soon leave office.

Democrats are due to take control of the chamber in January, and Senate Republicans are trying to move judicial nominations before that handover. The committee could revisit West’s nomination while Armstrong remains in office, or the question could still be pending when Hern arrives. For now, the Nov. 17 listing sets another opportunity for the panel to act. It provides no indication that enough senators have agreed to move West’s nomination forward.