Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions has Condoleezza Rice in his corner.
Rice, who served as secretary of state under former President George W. Bush, endorsed Sessions on Monday to be Donald Trump's attorney general, CNN reported.
The confirmation hearing for Sessions begins Tuesday, and he is likely to get questions about being denied a federal judgeship 30 years ago amid allegations of racism.
It was in 1986 the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Thomas Figures, a black assistant U.S. attorney who worked for Sessions, that Sessions joked about the Ku Klux Klan and called him "boy" multiple times.
Figures also said he thought Klan members were "OK, until he learned that they smoked marijuana."
Rice, who is black, called Sessions "a man who is committed to justice and knows that law and order are necessary to guarantee freedom and liberty," in a letter she wrote to Sen. Chuck Grassley.
"I know that Sen. Sessions will uphold the laws of our great country and will work to ensure that every person here in the United States is given the voice that is deserved."
Sessions has also received backing from key people within the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the nation's largest police union, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, and the National Sheriff's Association.