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SALT LAKE CITY — Conservatives are pushing for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump to commit to nominating Sen. Mike Lee to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia, the Washington Post is reporting.
The Utah Republican, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, already has the support of another GOP presidential hopeful, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who said at a campaign rally in Utah that Lee "would look good" on the nation's high court.
Lee's spokesman, Conn Carroll, said in a statement that, "Sen. Lee already has the job he wants and is looking forward to continuing his work pushing a conservative reform agenda in the Senate."
Trump told the Washington Post last week he planned to announce a list of 10 to 12 potential Supreme Court nominees that he would choose from if he wins the White House.
"And I'm going to guarantee it. … Because people are worried that, oh, maybe he'll put the wrong judge in," the controversial billionaire businessman and reality TV start told the newspaper.
The sources Trump said he was "getting names" from in the newspaper interview included Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, and the Heritage Foundation. Sessions called Lee "a very good choice," according to the Post.
And Lee is the only member of Congress who made the Heritage Foundation's list of eight lawyers who illustrate "the kind of highly qualified, principled individuals the new president should consider" in naming a new justice.
The Post offered other reasons why "Lee would be a dream pick for conservative activists," including his late father, Rex Lee, serving as solicitor general to then-President Ronald Reagan, and his own dependability as a conservative.
This isn't the first time Lee's name has surfaced as a possible nominee.
A year ago, Lee told MSNBC that if one of his friends running for president — a list that now only includes Cruz — "got elected president, and asked me to consider that, if the question is, would I consider it, the answer is yes."
The latest discussion of a nomination for Lee comes as Senate Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, continue to refuse to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland, arguing the next president should make the pick.
