Sullivan backs a contested Trump border judge; Murkowski doesn't vote

Alaska's two U.S. senators landed in different places on a contested Trump judicial nominee this week. Sen. Dan Sullivan voted Monday to confirm Arthur "Rob" Jones to a federal judgeship in South Texas, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski did not vote and gave no explanation.

Jones was confirmed on a party-line tally — Republicans present in favor, every Democrat and both independents against.

Jones is a career federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Texas, a border-heavy court that handles much of the nation's immigration caseload — the kind of enforcement-minded pick the Trump administration has favored for the bench. Democrats opposed him. At his confirmation hearing, Jones declined under oath to say whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election or whether the U.S. Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6, 2021, saying only that Biden had been "certified" as the winner.

His backers pointed to his credentials. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who recommended him, praised a "distinguished" record of holding dangerous criminals accountable and securing the border, and Jones brings two decades as a federal prosecutor plus earlier service as an Air Force JAG officer.

For Alaska, the only real mark on the record is the votes themselves: Sullivan's yes, and Murkowski's absence, still unexplained.