WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general Wednesday after a bruising nomination process that tested the rules of Senate collegiality.

Applause broke out from the Republican side of the chamber as the final vote was announced — 52-47.

Sessions, who voted present, got support from all his GOP colleagues. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) was the lone Democrat to back him.

Sessions, 70, survived a grueling 10-hour confirmation hearing, heated protests from liberal and civil-rights activists, and the silencing Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who had criticized the Alabama senator from the Senate floor.

Sessions will be the nation’s top law-enforcement official after two decades in the Senate.