President Trump on Wednesday announced his intent to nominate Sean Cooksey and Shana Broussard to serve as members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The potential nominations come four months after Republican FEC Commissioner Caroline Hunter resigned, leaving the agency without a necessary quorum of at least four commissioners, thereby barring the FEC from voting on enforcement actions in the months leading up to the presidential election.
Cooksey currently serves as general counsel to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), previously having served as Hawley’s lead staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cooksey also previously served as deputy chief counsel for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has worked as a litigation associate at Washington, D.C., law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, and served as a law clerk for Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
Broussard currently serves as counsel to FEC Vice Chair Steven Walter, an independent. Broussard previously served as an attorney-adviser at the Internal Revenue Service and as deputy disciplinary counsel at the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, along with previously serving as a New Orleans assistant district attorney.
Broussard, if confirmed, would be the first Black FEC commissioner.