So many pending judicial nominations, so little time. With 57 days until they lose the majority, Senate Democrats want to beat the confirmation total of 234 during President Donald Trump’s first term. Look for a final confirmation push when the Senate returns on November 12.

The Judicial Appointment Tracker shows that the Senate has so far confirmed 213 of President Joe Biden’s nominations to life-tenured federal courts. Seventeen nominations—13 to the U.S. District Court, four to the U.S. Court of Appeals—are on the Senate’s executive calendar, ready for a final confirmation vote. Seven of the eleven nominations pending in the Judiciary Committee have had a hearing but not a committee vote.

How long the Senate is at work during a lame-duck session between Election Day and the start of the next Congress on January 3 depends on the current partisan leadership and the election results. This year is a close match for 2020, when the same party controlled both the White House and Senate and lost them both. Here’s what happened.

The Senate resumed work on November 9, 2020, six days after the election. The Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC), held a hearing in November and another in December on a total of five nominations. The committee approved four, adding them to the twelve judicial nominations already waiting for confirmation by the full Senate. The Senate confirmed a total of 14 of these nominations, the last one on December 17, for a total of 234 judicial appointees during Trump’s first term.

Adding the 17 pending nominations would bring Biden’s total to 230, only four behind Trump’s first-term tally. If the Judiciary Committee approves, and the Senate confirms, at least five of the nominees awaiting either a hearing or committee vote, Biden will exceed Trump’s total and claim the number-two spot. Only President Jimmy Carter, with 258, appointed more in a single term, although Congress created 151 new judgeships in 1978, and in those days the confirmation process operated much more efficiently.

Democrats introduced systematic partisanship into the judicial confirmation during Trump’s first term. Under every president from Eisenhower to Obama, senators of one party opposed an average of 5 percent of other-party’s nominations. Under Trump, Democrats raised that to 41 percent. That trend has continued, with the average Republican voting against 78 percent of Biden’s nominations.

Beating Trump’s first-term judicial appointment total would be one of Democrats’ final swipes before they relinquish Senate control.