Gigi Sohn Withdraws FCC Nomination Due to Politics, Policy, and Police Pressure

Gigi Sohn, a career tech regulatory advocate and distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law, has withdrawn from the confirmation process to be a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner. President Joe Biden nominated Sohn three times, starting in October 2021, but she never secured the Senate’s approval.

Sohn confirmed her withdrawal in a statement decrying the 2–2 Republican–Democrat “deadlock” at the FCC. She attributed her stalled confirmation to “legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups.” It would be more accurate to say that politics and policy differences played a role in dooming her bid to fill the fifth FCC chair.

On the politics front, Sohn suggested in an October 2020 tweet that Fox News is “state-sponsored propaganda,” potentially worthy of senatorial scrutiny. Days later, she tweeted, “Republicans know that the only way they can win is to suppress the vote.” Republicans have also objected to her characterizing Brett Kavanaugh as an “Angry white man.” (In her most recent nomination hearing, she labeled some of her previous statements “sharp” and “more partisan than I would even prefer.”)

During the 2022 election cycle, Sohn donated modestly to the campaigns of Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D–N.V.), John Fetterman (D–Pa.), Michael Bennet (D–Colo.), and Raphael Warnock (D–Ga.), the last of whom sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, which reviewed Sohn’s nomination. And yet it was Democratic holdouts who kept Sohn off the FCC: Shortly before The Washington Post first reported Sohn’s withdrawal on Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.V.) announced his opposition to her nomination. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D–Nev.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I–Ariz.) also voiced concern over various elements of Sohn’s record during her nomination hearings.

While partisan politics