Today, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Donald Trump’s appointment to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Neomi Rao. DNC Women’s Media Director Elizabeth Renda and LGBTQ Media Director Lucas Acosta released the following joint statement in response:

“A vote for Neomi Rao is a vote for a judge who blamed survivors of sexual assaults for being attacked. It is a vote for a judge who claimed sexual orientation is a ‘behavior’ that can be changed. It is a vote for someone who worked to allow health care providers to deny care to patients seeking reproductive care or HIV treatment based on ‘conscientious objections.’ It is a vote for someone who called affirmative action the ‘anointed dragon of liberal excess’ and welfare a program ‘for the indigent and lazy.’

“Neomi Rao does not belong on the federal bench. The Republican Senators who voted in favor of her confirmation to the court today willfully turned their back on women, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, low-income families, and countless others. Our party will never stop fighting to defend our Democratic values against Trump’s dangerous appointees to the courts, like Rao.”