Arizona prosecutor Rachel Mitchell has emerged as Senate Republicans’ choice to question Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Mitchell, the sex crimes bureau chief for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office in Phoenix, is the leading candidate to query the two at Thursday’s highly anticipated hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the individuals.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it on the record.

A registered Republican, Mitchell has worked for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for 26 years.

Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both in high school, will testify under oath on Thursday. So will Kavanaugh.

Republicans have opted to bring in a female representative to ask questions for the 11 GOP men on the committee.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to comment on Tuesday night. Representatives for Kavanaugh and Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a 2011 interview, Mitchell said she was drawn to sex crimes work after she was paired with a senior lawyer prosecuting a youth choir director after joining the office as a law clerk awaiting the results of her bar exam.

“It was different than anything that I would have ever imagined it being,” she said. “It struck me how innocent and vulnerable the victims of these cases really were.”

She now is a supervisor, where her duties include analyzing legislative changes and managing other attorneys. In an interview earlier this year on a local NPR radio station, Mitchell talked about the nuts-and-bolts of the office’s adoption of a new sex crimes protocol, the first in office history, intended to improve the investigation and prosecution of cases. She said the new manual would ensure prosecutors “have something to look at to say, OK, these are the best practices, so that we can do the best we can for victims.”

Tracy Westerhausen, a Phoenix defense attorney who has gone up against Mitchell in 30 cases, over more than 20 years, said she has developed a close friendship with Mitchell over their time on opposite sides of the courtroom.

“Part of the reason we’re very good friends, she is a very nuanced and wise prosecutor,” she said. “She doesn’t pigeon-hole defendants. In my experience, she is a very pointed questioner of adverse witnesses. But she is also very fair.”

A lifelong registered Democrat, Westerhausen said she has never discussed politics with Mitchell but considers her a good choice for the high-stakes job.

“As an American, it would make me more comfortable to see her selected. I really do think that she’s a very professional person, who is out to make sure the right thing is done,” Westerhausen said.

“She’s been either a trial lawyer or a supervisor for decades. I’m guessing she knows what she’s doing,” he said.

In enlisting a woman to join their staff, Republican senators are taking an unusual step. Turning to a woman to ask Ford what are expected to be personal and potentially painful questions about her youth on live television spares the all-male panel of Republican senators some uncomfortable exchanges that could sway the public’s opinion about the session.

“Inadvertently somebody will do something that’s insensitive. I would not be wanting to ask questions about something like this,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who is not on the Judiciary Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Tuesday that Republican lawmakers hired “a female assistant” to “ask these questions in a respectful and professional way. We want this hearing to be handled very professionally, not a political sideshow.”

McConnell would not reveal the woman’s identity.