The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Dale Ho to a lifetime federal judgeship, a major victory for progressives who have been anxiously awaiting action on Hos nomination for nearly two years.

Ho was confirmed 50 to 49 to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Every Republican voted no. Every Democrat, including the three independents who caucus with them, voted to confirm him, except for one: Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who is running for president, missed the vote.

Ho, 46, is considered one of the nations leading voting rights lawyers. Hes been the director of the American Civil Liberties Unions voting rights project since 2013 and was previously a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He argued two cases against the Trump administration at the Supreme Court, one of which successfully challenged former President Donald Trumps plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Ho has also led a racial justice clinic at New York Universitys School of Law since 2014.

Progressive judicial advocacy groups including Demand Justice, Alliance for Justice and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights , which is a coalition of more than 230 national civil and human rights organizations, have long supported Hos nomination.

His Wednesday confirmation represents the very best of Bidens judicial legacy of diversifying federal courts, said Brian Fallon of Demand Justice.

President Joe Biden has put forward record numbers of diverse court picks since taking office, both in terms of demographics and professional backgrounds. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, has been confirming his nominees at warp speed.

As much as any nominee, Dale Ho exemplifies how President Biden and Leader Schumer have worked hand-in-hand to revolutionize the type of lawyers who get nominated for the bench, Fallon said. Under previous administrations, lawyers who spent their careers at civil rights organizations were too often passed over when it came time to pick judges. Not so anymore.

Fallon added, Given his youth and brilliance, this ought not be the last time Ho comes before the Senate for a confirmation vote.

Demand Justice previously included Ho in its shortlist of recommended candidates for the Supreme Court.