COLUMBIA, S.C. — The U.S. Senate has confirmed a former congressional candidate and Columbia lawyer to become the top federal prosecutor for South Carolina.
The Senate approved the nomination by a voice vote of Adair Ford Boroughs on Thursday as the state’s U.S. attorney.
After the vote, Ford Boroughs tweeted, “I’m very excited to return to (the) DOJ and to work with an incredible team at the U.S. Attorney’s office.”
President Joe Biden nominated Ford Boroughs, 42, for the position in June. Ford Boroughs’ nomination was quickly advanced by a Senate panel on July 14 with just two members — Missouri Republican Josh Hawley and Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn — opposed.
It will be Ford Boroughs’ second stint with the Department of Justice, including a near six-year run in Washington, D.C., where she handled various civil cases in federal courts across the country.
With her confirmation, the Barnwell County native becomes the second woman to lead the office in South Carolina. Sherri Lydon served in 2018-2019.
A former high school math teacher before a career that brought her to Washington and later to a role as a clerk in the U.S. District Court in Charleston, Ford Boroughs will enter a U.S. Attorney’s Office that has seen significant turnover, with three different leaders in six years.
Her appointment ends a period of interim leadership for the office that dates back to February 2021 after former state Rep. Peter McCoy, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, resigned when Biden took office. Corey Ellis has been the interim U.S. attorney since December.
In 2020, Ford Boroughs ran unsuccessfully to represent South Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, losing to incumbent Republican Joe Wilson by 13 percentage points.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has about 62 assistant U.S. attorneys working in its headquarters in Columbia and satellite offices in Charleston, Greenville and Florence.
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