The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Hester Peirce, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission counsel and Senate aide, is the Trump administration's likely choice to fill the open Republican seat at the Wall Street regulator. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that should President Donald Trump pick Ms. Peirce to be an SEC commissioner, her nomination will likely be paired with a candidate backed by Senate Democrats for another vacant seat at the agency. Candidates who have been discussed for the Democratic spot include Robert Jackson, a Columbia University law professor, and Bharat Ramamurti, an aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Ms. Peirce is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University who has been sharply critical of the regulatory expansion enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis. She was initially selected for an SEC seat by President Obama in 2015, but her nomination stalled in the Senate Banking Committee last year. Filling the Republican slot could boost SEC chairman Jay Clayton's efforts to act on his agenda, which includes steps to make it easier for companies to raise money in public markets. Mr. Clayton was a New York deals lawyer.