Fudge, who huddled with Pelosi in the Capitol on Friday, said Pelosi has offered to restore a defunct subcommittee on elections, and to make Fudge the chairwoman.

The issue of voting rights has been a top priority of members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which Fudge used to lead, particularly since a 2013 Supreme Court decision scrapped key protections previously provided under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Fudge is vowing to use her new gavel to restore those protections.

"Leader Pelosi has granted me the opportunity to create the record necessary to satisfy the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, so that the protections of the Voting Rights Act will be reinstated and improved,” Fudge said in a statement.

“She has also assured me that the most loyal voting bloc in the Democratic party, Black women, will have a seat at the decision-making table," she added.

"I am now confident that we will move forward together and that the 116th Congress will be a Congress of which we can all be proud. I now join my colleagues in support of the leadership team of Pelosi, [Steny] Hoyer and [James] Clyburn."

Fudge has been embroiled in her own controversy this week, after reports emerged that she’d once defended an Ohio judge facing domestic violence charges — a man recently charged with murdering his former wife.



Fudge issued a statement earlier on Tuesday condemning the alleged crimes in no uncertain terms.



“The person who committed these crimes is not the Lance Mason familiar to me,” she said. “They were horrific crimes, and I condemn them.”

Fudge’s new position chairing the election subcommittee empowers her to tackle the voting rights issues that have long been high on the Democrats’ wish list, particularly among members of the CBC.



The Voting Rights Act had required a number of states with a history of racial discrimination at the polls — most of them in the South — to get federal approval before changing their voting rules.



In a 5-4 decision in June 2013, the Supreme Court eliminated that requirement. Behind Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court's conservative majority found that the formula dictating which states are subject to the extra hurdles — defined by Section 4 of the law — is outdated and therefore unconstitutional.



Roberts invited Congress to "draft another formula based on current conditions" — an option Republican leaders rejected.



Fudge won’t do the same.



“The erosion of voting rights and civil rights was on full display in Georgia, Florida, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas,” she said in Tuesday’s statement. “Our party should reflect the diversity of our changing nation and guarantee all our citizens the unfettered right to vote and to have every vote count.”