Rubio, Bondi among 6 nominees with confirmation hearings Wednesday

The Senate’s fight to confirm President-elect Trump’s Cabinet accelerates Wednesday, as more than half a dozen nominees head into their confirmation hearings.

Committees will hear from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), Trump’s choice for secretary of State; fossil fuel executive Chris Wright, who’s up to run the Energy Department; and Pam Bondi, whom Trump named as his attorney general nominee after former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) withdrew from consideration. 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), Trump's pick for to lead Homeland Security, was scheduled to appear Wednesday, but her hearing has been bumped to Friday.

Trump and his allies are working to get the incoming president’s team solidified as his Jan. 20 inauguration nears. With a 53-seat majority in the Senate, Republicans are optimistic about clearing the nominees, but even a small handful of party holdouts could pose hurdles. 

Here’s what you need to know about the nominees with Wednesday confirmation hearings:

Pam Bondi

Bondi, Florida’s former attorney general, is Trump’s second choice to lead the Department of Justice. 

He’d initially picked Gaetz, a controversial former congressman who withdrew from consideration after his bid was mired by sexual misconduct allegations and a House Ethics Committee inquiry. Trump tapped Bondi just hours later, touting her as “smart and tough” and “an AMERICA FIRST Fighter.” 

Bondi was a senior adviser on the defense team for Trump’s first impeachment, and was later one of several Republicans who showed up in New York last year to back Trump during his hush money trial, which resulted in his felony conviction. 

She’s also backed Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and accused Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and other prosecutors who’ve charged the president-elect of weaponizing the legal system.

Bondi will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee across two days, with a first appearance at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and another appearance slated for Thursday. 

Marco Rubio  

Trump’s nomination of Rubio as secretary of State elevates a former rival to the top diplomatic role. 

Rubio, who’s represented Florida in the Senate since 2011, was a fierce competitor in the 2016 presidential race before Trump won his first White House term. But the Sunshine State Republican has become an ally in the years since and was named in the veepstakes as a possible running mate for Trump’s 2024 bid before the slot went to Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R).

Rubio is seen as a foreign policy hawk who is tough on China and Iran. Though some in the MAGA wing of the GOP have questioned the nomination, he’s seen support from both sides of the aisle. 

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) on Monday announced he’d vote for Rubio's nomination, praising him for “a thorough understanding of the United States’ role on an international scale” in a signal that the Republican could sail through the confirmation process with bipartisan support. 

He’ll appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which he’s served, at 10 a.m.

If confirmed, Rubio’s ascension to lead the State Department would vacate his seat in the Senate. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who’s supported Trump since exiting the 2024 race himself, has the power to pick Rubio’s replacement. 

John Ratcliffe  

Trump is turning to Ratcliffe, his former head of national intelligence, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in his second term. 

Ratcliffe, a former Texas representative, was set to get the intelligence director nod back in 2019 — but he withdrew from consideration amid criticism from Democrats over his resume and concerns that Ratcliffe lacked the security background needed to lead all U.S. intelligence agencies. 

Trump again named him for the role in early 2020, and Ratcliffe was confirmed in a 49-44 vote, seen as a notably political vote for the typically apolitical position. He served just a few months at the end of Trump’s first term. 

This time around, the president-elect has called Ratcliffe “a warrior for Truth and Honesty” and touted that he’ll be the first person to serve in both top intelligence roles. He’ll go before senators in the Intelligence Committee at 10 a.m.

Sean Duffy

Former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) will go before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at 10 a.m. on his path to becoming Trump’s secretary of Transportation.  

Duffy, who would oversee national transportation systems and infrastructure as well as safety regulations, has little experience in the transportation sector. He left the House toward the end of the first Trump administration and joined the lobbying world after learning that one of his children had a heart condition.

Trump later urged Duffy to run for governor of the Badger State in 2022, but Duffy decided against it. 

He most recently worked as co-host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business, after first joining Fox News as a contributor in 2020. After Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon pick, he’s the second Fox News personality tapped for a Cabinet-level role in the incoming administration. He also appeared on MTV’s “Real World” reality show series in the late ‘90s, before entering the political world. 

Chris Wright

Trump has controversially tapped Wright, who heads a fracking and oil field services company, to lead the Energy Department, overseeing the nation’s oil and gas production and exports as well as the nuclear weapons program.

Wright, a Trump donor, is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy. Like the president-elect, he’s denied and downplayed the connection between climate change and extreme weather. 

The president-elect praised him as a champion of “American Energy Independence,” and the pick comes as Trump has pledged to “drill, baby, drill” upon taking office. 

If confirmed to the post, Wright will also serve on a newly formed “Council of National Energy” led by Doug Burgum, Trump’s nominee for Interior secretary. 

He’ll appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at 10 a.m.

Russell Vought

Vought is on track to reprise his role as director of the Office of Management and Budget, which he helmed at the end of Trump’s first term.

If confirmed, he’ll lead the office that oversees the implementation of the president’s “vision” across the executive branch, including the development and execution of the federal budget. 

Vought was a key author of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a policy blueprint for a second Trump term, which the president-elect worked to distance himself from on the campaign trail. He controversially penned a section that touches on the executive office of the president. 

He’ll appear at 1 p.m. before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Coming Thursday

• 10 a.m., former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), nominee for secretary of the Department of the Interior, appears before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
• 10 a.m., former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), nominee for Environmental Protection Agency administrator, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
• 10 a.m., Scott Turner, nominee for secretary of Housing and Urban Development, appears before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
• 10:15 a.m., former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), nominee for attorney general, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• 10:30 a.m., Scott Bessent, nominee for Treasury secretary, appears before the Senate Finance Committee.