Attorney General-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee'. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed Wednesday as the next U.S. Attorney General.

The Senate split mostly along party lines in the vote for Sessions. Only one Democrat - West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin - crossed the aisle to support Sessions.

The final vote was 52-47.

Sessions will be sworn in shortly by President Donald Trump.

The vote came after a contentious 24 hours in which Senate Democrats spoke overnight to protest Sessions' nomination, citing concerns about his civil rights record. The protest resulted in a rebuke against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren for violating Senate rules that prohibit members from impugning "the motives and conduct" of fellow lawmakers.

Sessions was one of President Donald Trump's first cabinet picks, building on a close relationship that started during the campaign. Sessions was the first sitting Senator to endorse Trump and the two appeared together several times during political rallies.

Sessions, a Mobile native, is the first Alabamian to be named U.S. Attorney General. As Attorney General, he falls seventh in line in the order of presidential succession, behind the Vice President, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Defense.

Who is Jeff Sessions?

Sessions, 70, was born in Selma and raised in the small town of Hybart, Alabama. He graduated from Montgomery's Huntingdon College and the University of Alabama School of Law. Sessions served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1973 to 1986, ultimately attaining the rank of captain.

Sessions was a practicing attorney in the small North Alabama town of Russellville before moving his practice to Mobile. He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1975-1977 before being nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, a position he held for 12 years.

In 1986, Reagan nominated Sessions to be a judge for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Alabama. His nomination failed when Senators said they were concerned about comments he had allegedly made regarding desegregation and civil liberties groups.

In 1995, Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General. Just a year later, Sessions won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in the race to replace retiring Democrat Howell Heflin, who had voted against his judicial appointment.

In the General Election, Sessions defeated former State Sen. Roger Bedford for the Senate post and then earned a second term by defeating Democratic State Auditor Susan Parker in 2002. He won reelection by a wide margin in 2008 and again in 2014, when he ran unopposed.

Sessions' Senate career has included times on the Judiciary, Armed Services and Budget committees.

Sessions and his wife, Mary Blackshear Sessions, originally of Gadsden, Alabama, have three children, Mary Abigail Reinhardt, Ruth Sessions Walk, and Sam. They have seven granddaughters, Jane Ritchie, Alexa, Gracie, Sophia, Hannah, Joanna, and Phoebe and three grandsons, Jim Beau, Lewis, and Nicholas.