US President Donald Trump released an updated list of people he would consider for possible future Supreme Court vacancies on Wednesday, with the aim to bring out conservative voters.

The announcement adds 20 names to those that Trump has already mentioned as potential picks, all of whom he said would be "jurists in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito."

The potential list, assumable, includes his political allies such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Speaking on the White House Trump told reporters, "Over the next four years, America's president will choose hundreds of federal judges and in all likelihood one, two, three and even four Supreme Court justices."

"The outcome of these decisions will determine whether we hold fast to our nation's founding principles or whether they are lost forever," he added.

Trump’s updated list is a continuation of the strategy he pioneered during his run for president in 2016, and a pre-election attempt to stoke some of the voter passion for the federal judiciary on the right that helped propel him to the presidency. 

Trump is seeking to energize courts-focused Republican and evangelical voters less than two months before the election as polls show him trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden nationally and in most swing states.

Moments after being added to Trump's list, Cotton wrote on Twitter, "It's time for Roe v. Wade to go." Cruz said he was "grateful for the president's confidence in me." Hawley told NBC News that he has been telling Trump "for weeks" that he is "not interested in the job."

Conservative advocates praised the list and predicted that it would help him win re-election.

Source: Agencies