Trump Finally Nominated New FEC Commissioners. But Their Confirmations Could Languish.

Earlier this month, after months of inaction, President Donald Trump nominated a pair of Republicans to the Federal Election Commission — a move that could reanimate the campaign finance regulator after nearly 10 months devoid of its law enforcement, rulemaking and investigatory powers.

But the process of returning the FEC to full strength in time for the 2026 midterm elections could still take weeks or even months more, further eroding oversight of the billions of dollars coursing through federal elections.

A NOTUS analysis of FEC commissioners nominated by presidents during the past 25 years indicates that the median number of days it takes the Senate to confirm a candidate is 91. In extreme cases, FEC commissioner nominees languish for more than a year — if they ever receive a hearing at all.

On one end: Matthew Petersen, a Republican chief counsel on the Senate Rules Committee when then-President George W. Bush appointed him, breezed through in just 12 days.

On the other: Trey Trainor, a Trump nominee, whose 2017 nomination languished for 976 days before the Senate narrowly confirmed him in 2020. Some nominees never get confirmed.

Several former FEC commissioners are hopeful the confirmation process for new Trump nominees Ashley Stow and Andrew Woodson won’t stall.

“They’re highly qualified and they should be confirmed very swiftly,” Sean Cooksey, a former Republican FEC chair who just joined lobbying giant BGR after a year-long stint as counsel to Vice President JD Vance, told NOTUS.

But the Senate Rules Committee now needs to hold confirmation hearings — which have not yet been scheduled — and advance the nominees to the Senate, which will have the final vote.

Cooksey also warned: “What awaits them once they’re confirmed is harder.”

Indeed, once the FEC has at least four duly confirmed commissioners serving — the agency has just two, at present — it’s likely to face a massive backlog of enforcement cases from its months mired in a de facto shutdown. Some of the cases may be nearing the end of the FEC’s five-year statute of limitations. And with only four commissioners present on a six-member commission, affirmatively ruling on any case will require a unanimous vote.

FEC enforcement case backlogs proved to be a major problem for the agency after Trump, during his first term, failed to appoint commissioners in a timely fashion, resulting in monthslong stoppages during 2019 and 2020.

Meanwhile, the FEC will likely face a barrage of advisory opinion requests — petitions by political committees and other interested parties for formal, legal guidance on federal campaign finance rules and regulations.

“If the FEC is able to be reconstituted in the near future, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw several requests come in the door almost immediately,” Petersen told NOTUS.

Shana Broussard, a Democrat and current FEC chair, told NOTUS she expects “expedited” decisions on advisory opinion requests, “which the commission has always prioritized in an election year.”

Federal Election Commission Chair Shana Broussard. Bill Clark/AP

“Once quorum is restored, we will have the four commissioners we need to get back to business as usual but there will be additional work from the commissioners to get to four votes,” Broussard added.

Several former FEC commissioners do expect Stow, who previously worked with former FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor, and Woodson, a lawyer at Wiley Rein who worked for former FEC Chair Lee Goodman, to quickly acclimate given their past experience on the commission.

“They’ll have a full plate,” former FEC Commissioner David Mason, now general counsel and chief compliance officer at Aristotle, told NOTUS.

Since the FEC probably won’t regain its four-commissioner quorum until the spring, at least, the agency’s ability to pass new election rules or punish campaign scofflaws during the 2026 election cycle will likely be limited.

“A violation that occurs in the summer of 2026 is very unlikely to be headed to a successful prosecution before Election Day,” Brad Smith, a former Republican FEC commissioner and founder and chairman of the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech, told NOTUS. “They don’t happen like snapping your fingers, and so the idea that this makes a big difference for the 2026 campaign, in that sense, is mistaken.”

Questions about the FEC’s independence also remain.

Cooksey recalled Trump’s decision in February 2025 to fire then-FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat, who had served on the commission since 2002, long past the six-year term.

Weintraub, a vocal critic of Trump, decried her dismissal as illegal, to no avail. Cooksey and fellow Republican Allen Dickerson resigned in early 2025, too, causing the FEC to fall below its bare-boned quorum of four commissioners since Trump failed to fill their spots — despite Congress recommending Stow and Woodson to him.

Weintraub and other Democratic commissioners often accused their Republican counterparts of failing to enforce campaign finance laws passed by Congress.

But they also frustrated their Republican counterparts by sometimes forcing 3-3 deadlocks on cases before the FEC, which had the practical effect of preventing cases from being fully dismissed. This maneuver allowed complainants to effectively bypass the FEC and sue defendants in federal court.

“If commissioners again begin to weaponize the FEC against defendants, I think there’s a significant risk that they’re going to be fired by the president,” Cooksey said. “It will be interesting to see how that impacts the behavior of a newly restored FEC.”

Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at Campaign Legal Center, which said at the time agreed Trump had fired Weintraub “illegally,” told NOTUS that “it’s quite important that those commissioners be committed to protecting and preserving the agency’s independence.”

“When it comes to the confirmation process, that should absolutely be front and center of the questions that are posed to nominees,” added Chlopak, who previously led the FEC’s policy division.

But Smith said the FEC’s independence will ultimately be decided by the courts, not individual commissioners.

He’s more interested in hearing their thoughts on simplifying the reporting process for political candidates and committees, getting old regulations like those related to skywriting off the books and updating regulations that subsequent court decisions may have rendered obsolete.

“If you’re going to have an FEC, you want one that is properly functioning. I don’t think anybody really benefits from a dysfunctional, unstaffed government agency,” Smith said.