Melissa Holyoak, solicitor general of Utah and a longtime litigator, is poised to be nominated for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission as soon as this week, The Post has learned.
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has submitted Holyoak’s name as a potential commissioner for the FTC to the White House — and is expected to formally nominate her in a matter of days, according to multiple sources close to the situation.
The move comes after McConnell had earlier floated James Lloyd, associate deputy attorney general in Texas and a prolific antitrust hawk, as an FTC candidate.
Sources said Lloyd’s candidacy appears to have fizzled after his boss, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, was impeached by the lower chamber of the Texas legislature over charges of bribery and misuse of office.
If Holyoak’s nomination makes it through Congress, it will mean at least one Republican atop the agency that’s been led only by Democrats since Commissioner Christine Wilson left last month.
Wilson had publicly clashed with FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, a 34-year-old Biden appointee who this week sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard.
The Post previously reported that some Washington insiders were worried Holyoak didn’t have the antitrust bona fides they’d like to see in a new commissioner.
Any new appointee will be forced to go toe to toe with Khan, a Democrat whom Wilson had accused of “abuses of power” as she pursued cases against tech giants including Meta.
“Melissa is very smart but Republicans will lose the opportunity to contribute to antitrust enforcement,” one antitrust insider told The Post.
Still, others are glad just to see McConnell push the process forward.
“Don’t make the perfect enemy of the good,” Dan Caprio, former chief of staff to an FTC commissioner, told The Post. “The FTC doesn’t have a Republican commissioner right now so they should be glad to have someone — and I think Holyoak will do well.”
McConnell, meanwhile, has an additional Republican vacancy to fill as Noah Phillips stepped down from the powerful panel last fall.
Following Lloyd’s apparent flameout, Andrew Ferguson — current solicitor general of Virginia and previously McConnell’s chief counsel — is once again under consideration to fill that second seat, according to sources.
A spokesman for McConnell did not immediately respond to request for comment.