Welcome to the Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024 Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- We’re back! Ballotpedia’s Holiday Cookie Election starts today!
- There were eight federal judicial confirmations, three vacancies, and one nomination in November
- An early look at election legislation pre-filed for 2025
We’re back! Ballotpedia’s sixth annual Holiday Cookie Election starts today!
We are stocking up on flour, breaking out the sprinkles, and dusting off the cookie cutters. ‘Tis the season for holiday cookies! Do you have a favorite cookie, maybe one to pair with a cup of cocoa? We will refrain from endorsements because it is once again time to elect this year’s official holiday cookie!
Last year, incumbent Chocolate Cookie defeated Sugar Cookie and then-incumbent Gingerbread Cookie in the general election, 39.6% to 31.5% to 28.8%. In 2022, Gingerbread Cookie received 32% of the vote, beating Sugar Cookie (30%), Snickerdoodle (26%), and several write-in candidates.
We’ll hold a primary and general election to see which cookie will take the title this year.
Primary voters will pick their top 3 candidates from the full field of eight. Polls are open today, Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 8 am ET through Friday, Dec. 13, at 5 pm ET.
As Daily Brewsters, we know you strive to be informed voters, so we have gathered the candidate profiles in preparation for the election. Here’s who’s on the ballot:
- Sugar Cookie
- Chocolate chip cookie
- Chocolate peppermint bark cookie
- Gingerbread cookie
- Peanut butter blossom
- Snickerdoodle
- Thumbprint cookie
- Oatmeal raisin
There were eight federal judicial confirmations, three vacancies, one nomination in November
There are 24 days until the 119th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025, and 41 days until President-elect Donald Trump (R) is sworn in on Jan. 20. This leaves President Joe Biden (D) and the Democratic Senate majority with less than a month to fill vacancies in federal courts. A version of this story appeared in Ballotpedia’s Robe and Gavel newsletter on Dec. 9.
Since our last update on Nov. 26, the Senate has confirmed seven of Biden’s Article III appointees. In November, there were eight confirmations, three new vacancies, and one new nomination. Click here to read Ballotpedia’s latest federal vacancy count report.
The seven Biden appointees confirmed so far in December are:
- Anthony Brindisi to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York
- Sparkle Sooknanan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Gail Weilheimer to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Catherine Henry to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Anne Hwang to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- Brian Murphy to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
This brings the total number of Biden appointees confirmed during the lame-duck period since the Nov. 5 election to 15.
In the past 100 years, there have been five lame-duck periods where a different party replaced the president and assumed majority control of the Senate.
- Trump in 2020 (replaced with Biden and a Democratic Senate majority)
- Jimmy Carter (D) in 1980 (replaced with Ronald Reagan (R) and a Republican Senate majority)
- Harry S. Truman (D) in 1952 (replaced with Dwight Eisenhower (R) and a Republican Senate majority)
- Herbert Hoover (R) in 1932 (replaced with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) and a Democratic Senate majority)
- William Howard Taft (R) in 1912 (replaced with Woodrow Wilson (D) and a Democratic Senate majority)
As of Dec. 1, the Senate had confirmed 221 of President Biden’s Article III judicial nominees, including 173 district court judges, 45 appeals court judges, two international trade judges, and one Supreme Court justice—since his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. To review a complete list of Biden’s confirmed nominees, click here.
Biden announced one new nomination in November, nominating Tali Farhadian Weinstein to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has nominated 252 individuals to Article III positions.
Three judges assumed senior status in November, creating vacancies. Senior status is a classification for federal judges who are semi-retired. These judges included:
- Judge Timothy Corrigan on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
- Judge Lee Rosenthal on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
- Judge Frank Whitney on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
Ballotpedia publishes a monthly federal vacancy count report detailing vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts. Click here to view the Dec. 1 report.
An early look at election legislation pre-filed for 2025
State legislators are beginning to pre-file legislation ahead of the 2025 legislative session. The pre-filing process allows legislators to prepare or introduce bills before the session starts. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, pre-filing can increase the efficiency of the legislative process by giving staff more time to draft legislation and complete paperwork, and allowing committees to set agendas ahead of time.
Here’s an early look at where bills are being filed and what topics they cover.
The most common bill topics are ballot access, voters and voter qualifications, Election Day voting, election officials and workers, election types and contest-specific procedures, and voter registration and list maintenance.
Ballotpedia is following 96 election-related bills that were pre-filed for legislative sessions in ten states in 2025. Of these, 45 bills (46.9%) had Democratic sponsors, 38 (39.6%) had Republican sponsors, and 13 (13.5%) had sponsors with other partisan affiliations.
Ballotpedia identified 229 election-related bills that were introduced for state legislative sessions in 2024 before the start of the year and 40 bills introduced for 2023 sessions before the start of 2023.
Texas legislators have pre-filed the largest number of bills for 2025 (57). The Texas Legislature is one of four state legislatures that only meets in odd-numbered years. The other three states whose legislatures only meet in odd-numbered years are Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota.
As of Dec. 9, Ballotpedia has tracked 3,828 election-related bills for legislation sessions in 2024, 3,718 bills for sessions in 2023, and 2,505 bills for sessions in 2022.
Click here to see the 2025 bills we’re tracking. Click here to see a list of 2025 state legislative session dates. A version of this story appeared in Ballotpedia’s Ballot Bulletin on December 6.