On paper, Lori Chavez-DeRemer looked like she would be Donald Trump’s best shot at unanimous approval in the Senate.
The labor secretary nominee was one of the most moderate Republicans during her single term in Congress, representing a swing district in Oregon before she was voted out of office in November. She was one of the most outspoken in her party for unions, one of three lawmakers in the GOP to cosponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would strengthen collective bargaining rights. And even Democrats concede she was probably the most liberal choice Trump was ever going to make to lead the Department of Labor.
But in the lead-up to her expected confirmation vote in a week, it’s likely Chavez-DeRemer will receive only a few — and possibly no — votes from Senate Democrats.
That’s partially due to a dramatic flip on Wednesday in her stance on the PRO Act, and partially due to what Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the federal government in general.
In her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Chavez-DeRemer called the PRO Act “imperfect.” She emphasized repeatedly that she no longer represents Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, and instead represents Trump’s agenda.
But the divide goes much deeper than Chavez-DeRemer or one pro-labor piece of legislation. Senate Democrats who spoke to NOTUS said the decision is really less about Chavez-DeRemer and more about the president.
Some of Trump’s earliest nominees — like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — will instead go down as his most bipartisan cabinet nominees. (Rubio got a 99-0 vote, Duffy a 77-22, and Noem 59-34.)
But that was all before Trump and Musk started shredding the federal bureaucracy and cancelling congressionally directed spending.
If Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination had been brought forward a month ago, Senate Democrats said there would likely be a greater show of support than the few Democrats Chavez-DeRemer is expected to get now.
“There’s no question that every confirmation hearing now is colored by the absolute demand of the president that he has total control of every agency in every way,” Sen. John Hickenlooper told NOTUS.
“It makes it hard to vote for these people because they have to agree to that, and they’re getting asked about it,” he said.
Some Senate Democrats — including Chris Murphy, Andy Kim and Tammy Duckworth — have committed to voting against all Trump nominees until he reverses his freeze on federal aid.
“I’m hopeful that more and more members will decide to vote no on all nominees,” Murphy said.
“There certainly were Democrats that were willing to believe her to be a different kind of Republican and an independent voice,” Murphy continued. “She clearly pledged allegiance to Trump and Musk.”
Sen. Tim Kaine also suggested his opposition was about a broader issue.
“Kind of like with Linda McMahon, if I think that there’s an effort to sort of just destroy the agency, then that also causes me concerns. And I think there may be an effort to destroy DOL,” Kaine said.
Even among Democrats who haven’t made a pledge, Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination has gone sour.
Sen. John Fetterman, who said last week that he would back Chavez-DeRemer, is now on the fence, citing her “dramatic departure” from the PRO Act.
“I didn’t really find that very helpful, and I think it might make it more difficult to get enthusiastic about her nomination,” Fetterman said.
That leaves little to no room for dissent among Republicans.
While Chavez-DeRemer is still expected to be confirmed, her past support for the PRO Act is a cause for concern among her party. And despite her repositioning on the bill, not all Republicans are sold.
“It seems like she’s reversed her positions on a lot of the PRO Act,” Sen. Rand Paul said. “The decision just has to be made: Is her new position her actual position or is this a new position in order to gain the nomination?”
Paul, who sits on the HELP committee, said he was undecided.
“I’m considering her responses, and I’m going to ponder it and decide whether or not I think the new responses are sincere,” he said. “It’s just hard for me to want to support somebody to be in charge of such a big department who has in the past been for overturning right to work.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who also sits on the HELP committee, said he’ll back her despite his reservations. Tuberville said he wants to back all of Trump’s nominees, though this was the most difficult nominee for him to support.
“It makes a lot of people nervous on our side, because of the PRO Act,” Tuberville said.
HELP Republicans huddled on Chavez-DeRemer during Thursday night’s Senate’s vote-a-rama, Tuberville added, saying he still expects “one or two” Republicans on the committee to not support her.
Without Paul, Chavez-DeRemer would need at least one Democrat to advance out of committee. And Tuberville said she’s not likely to get it.
The HELP committee will vote on Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination next Thursday. While all of Trump’s nominees have been reported favorably out of committee, there are three other options also on the table: to report her nomination unfavorably, to make no recommendation or to take no action at all.
Regardless of how the committee reports, the full Senate vote for Chavez-DeRemer is likely to still move to the Senate’s executive calendar. It’s a decision for Majority Leader John Thune, and he’s seemed keen on approving Chavez-DeRemer.
Both parties believe Chavez-DeRemer will ultimately be confirmed by the Senate. If Paul does vote against her, he’d have to be joined by three other Republicans to sink her nomination, assuming all Democrats actually vote against her.
Still, the narrow threshold and GOP uncertainty gives Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats more influence on her fate than they’ve had for other confirmations.
Between her recent comments on the PRO Act and the Department of Government Efficiency’s looming cuts at the Department of Labor, Democrats aren’t jumping to throw Chavez-DeRemer the lifeline she may need to make it through.
“DOGE probably hurt her a little bit with Democrats,” Tuberville said. “I don’t think Schumer is going to allow any of his side to vote for her, even though she has more of their ideas than anybody else that has been a nominee.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.