The White House hopes to have a Supreme Court nominee chosen by the time President Donald Trump leaves for his European trip on July 10, according to one Republican close to the White House and one person involved with the judicial selection process.

The White House is expected to start interviewing candidates early next week, with the White House’s top attorney, Don McGahn, leading that process. The goal is to hold confirmation hearings in August or September, so that any confirmed justice can join the court in early October, before the next term.


Top contenders include Raymond Kethledge, Thomas Hardiman, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amul Thapar — though the person involved with the process stressed that other potential nominees from Trump’s list of judges could also get a “hard look.”

Trump and a cadre of yet-to-be-determined senior administration officials are expected to interview a handful of finalists, similar to how the White House handled the selection of Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch.

“The administration has already been through this once, so that really helps a lot. There is already a system in place,” said the person involved with the process.

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Several outside groups including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and Judicial Crisis Network are expected to help to push the Republican nomination, especially once Trump announces his nominee.

The Judicial Crisis Network spent more than $10 million to support the Gorsuch confirmation, and JCN chief counsel Carrie Severino predicted the group’s spending would exceed that figure this time around. With Democrats aiming to persuade moderate Republicans to block a nominee, she added, “this nomination will be more contentious.”

But after months of the president dividing his party over thorny issues like immigration and trade, the Kennedy retirement offers a unique opportunity to motivate Trump’s base and, potentially, to mobilize voters frustrated with Trump to turn out the GOP in the midterm elections anyway.

“Republicans have been looking for an issue to ensure their base turns out in November, and I think we’ve found it with the Supreme Court pick,” said Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist and former special assistant to the president and White House deputy strategist in the Trump administration. “I know the pick will happen before the elections, but messaging-wise, I don’t think you can have a better one than: ‘Do you want the party of Maxine Waters deciding the fate of the Supreme Court?’”

The president seemed ecstatic about the open seat during a Wednesday evening rally in North Dakota. There, he pledged to select a judge who could serve for 40 to 45 years before doing his best to give supporters a sense of urgency about the need for continued Republican control Congress.

“Justice Kennedy’s retirement makes the issue of Senate control the vital issue of our time,” Trump said. “It’s one of most important things we can do.

This opening gives the White House a chance to energize its base for an election many had expected to favor the Democrats. And it calms some tension inside the administration about what messages Republicans should emphasize in the midterms — the tax bill, economy, work on opioid addiction and drug prices, or hard-line immigration policies.

“It’s the policy issue of Supreme Court nominations, not tax cuts, that truly unites the Republican Party, as evident by President Trump’s debate answer on this topic that fueled his home-stretch spring in 2016,” said Jason Miller, a former top aide to Trump during the campaign and transition.

In recent weeks, Republicans have been split apart by the questions of potential tariffs or hard-line immigration moves. While tariffs and a border wall fire up Trump’s base of white, working-class voters, those issues have not resonated as well within the business, donor, or establishment Republican community.

Republican leadership on the Hill had hoped that in 2018 Trump’s midterm message would focus primarily on the healthy state of the economy and the Republican tax bill of 2017, yet the president himself has had trouble sticking to that message at several recent rallies.

Yet a Supreme Court nomination — which ultimately could affect health care, abortion rights, affirmative action, freedom of religion and speech, guns rights, and corporate regulations – brings together the disparate coalitions of the Republican Party.

Already the anti-abortion group, SBA List, has volunteers on the ground in Ohio, Florida and Indiana going door-to-door to try to woo female voters, Hispanics, and Democrats to support anti-abortion legislation. They just hired field staff to allow them to expand the operation into North Dakota and West Virginia, home states of two vulnerable Senate Democrats, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin, respectively.

“The Senate is where Supreme Court picks are confirmed. That is one of our driving reasons for engaging at this level,” said Mallory Quigley, a spokesperson for SBA List.

On Thursday night, Trump met with a group of bipartisan senators, including Democrats Heitkamp, Manchin and Joe Donnelly and moderate Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy.

Just as they hope to unite conservatives, Republicans are hoping the issue divides Democrats. Already the White House is eyeing the 10 Democratic senators up for reelection this fall in states that Trump overwhelmingly won in 2016 — and hoping to pressure them into supporting the nominee.

The greatest hope of Trump advisers is that a Supreme Court pick will dominate the news so much that it will not allow Democrats to talk about their vision for health care or the economy or taxes — or to present any positive, forward-looking message.

“There will be no Democratic messaging on jobs, the economy or health care that cuts through, as many will be focused on hypothetical culture wars that make suburban swing voters uneasy,” Miller said.

Eliana Johnson and Lorraine Woellert contributed to this report.