The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced the nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit nominee Ryan Park to the Senate floor, as Democrats face a closing window in the lame-duck session to get President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial picks confirmed.

Park, North Carolina's solicitor general, was moved out of the committee in a 11-10 vote along party lines.

Park received pushback from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, who said the White House was "absolutely incompetent” and didn’t take into account his objections to the nomination. Tillis also repeated his claim that he has secured enough support from Democrats to block Park’s confirmation.

The White House "put forth a list of four nominees that they wanted me to choose from that included [North Carolina Sen.] Ted Budd’s opponent in a Senate election," Tillis said ahead of the committee's vote.

"Someone who is patently partisan [and] has a track record to substantiate it, and they think that that's a serious list for me to choose from,” Tillis added. “And then, when I provide them a list of four, they say not only are they not fit for the Fourth Circuit, but we wouldn't even consider them for a district court judge.”

But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois and the committee's chair, said the White house consulted extensively with the North Carolina senators before nominating Park.

Park, who became North Carolina solicitor general in 2020, argued in vain for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's use of race as a factor in admissions in the landmark 2023 U.S. Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC that ended affirmative action in college admissions.

He was previously an associate at Boies Schiller Flexner and served in the U.S. State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser. The Harvard Law School graduate clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.

Park is now one of five federal appeals court nominees waiting for a floor vote. The others are Karla Campbell for the Sixth Circuit, Julia Lipez for the First Circuit, Adeel Mangi for the Third Circuit and Embry Kidd for the Eleventh Circuit.

There are also 24 district court nominees either awaiting votes from the Senate Judiciary Committee or the full Senate.

The committee on Thursday also advanced the nomination of Sharad Harshad Desai for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.