In a 54-41 vote Wednesday morning, the U.S. Senate confirmed Josh Kindred as Alaska’s newest U.S. District Court judge.
The vote approving Kindred was largely — though not entirely — along party lines. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Virginia, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, voted in favor of his appointment, as did all of the Senate’s Republicans.
Kindred’s confirmation hearing in December was uneventful, and he will replace U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline.
In addition to serving as the former solicitor for the Department of the Interior in Alaska, Kindred previously worked for the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and as a prosecutor for the state. He is a graduate of Bartlett High School, the University of Alaska Anchorage and Willamette University College of Law in Oregon.
He is the son-in-law of former state Sen. Chris Birch, who died in office last year.