WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Labor Department, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, advanced out of a Senate committee on Thursday — thanks to Democrats lending their votes to her nomination.
By a vote of 14-9, Chavez-DeRemer cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel. The committee has 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats, meaning if every Republican votes yes and every Democrat votes no, a nominee will advance. Typically, senators in the party of the president vote to advance all of the president’s top picks, while senators in the other party oppose some nominees to varying degrees.
But in Chavez-DeRemer’s case, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) bucked Trump and voted no. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) missed the vote, but later requested that she be recorded as a “yes.” If every Democrat had voted no, Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination would have ended in the committee, by a vote of 11-12.
But three Democrats voted to advance her nomination to the Senate floor, meaning they were key to keeping her nomination alive. They were Sens. Maggie Hassan (N.H.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.) and Tim Kaine (Va.).
Their support for Chavez-DeRemer — and the fact that they just saved her nomination — flies in the face of progressive groups that have been urging Democrats to oppose all of Trump’s nominees and use every procedural tool possible to stop the president’s reckless dismantling of the federal government and likely illegal mass firings of civil servants.
Hassan, for one, said Wednesday that she supported Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination because of positive messages she’s received from constituents and labor unions in her state.
“Though we may not agree on everything, after meeting with Representative Chavez-DeRemer and listening to her testimony during her confirmation hearing, I believe that she is qualified to serve as the next Secretary of Labor and I look forward to working with her to support New Hampshire’s workers and small businesses,” Hassan said in a statement.
Aides to Kaine and Hickenlooper did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why they voted to advance DeRemer’s nomination.
President Donald Trump’s labor secretary nominee, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, advanced out of a Senate committee with the help of Democrats’ votes. Anadolu via Getty Images
A former GOP House member representing Oregon’s fifth district, Chavez-DeRemer is one of the few Trump nominees to find Democratic backing, thanks largely to her pro-union record. During the last Congress she was one of just three Republican lawmakers in the House to sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which is filled with labor-friendly reforms aimed at boosting union membership.
That record is a big reason why she ended up being the nominee: Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters leader who has Trump’s ear, urged the president to choose Chavez-DeRemer for the labor post. But it also created a hurdle for her with anti-union Republicans who vehemently oppose the PRO Act and its provision repealing state right-to-work laws.
During her confirmation hearing, Paul pressed her on where she stood on right-to-work statutes, which bar contracts between employers and unions that require workers to pay dues for union protections. Chavez-DeRemer ended up saying she supports a state’s right to implement them, walking away from a key piece of the PRO Act.
“What you shared with me is how important it is to you and your state, and I heard that from many members,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “I fully and fairly support states who want to protect their right to work.”
Paul still ended up voting against her nomination, however, while some Democrats maintained their support.
Some Democrats likely view Chavez-DeRemer as a best-case scenario to lead the Labor Department under Trump. After all, during his first presidency Trump nominated a fast-food chief executive to oversee workplace safety and wage-and-hour laws.
The president’s labor record elsewhere during the current term is not encouraging. So far, he has fired thousands of federal workers and advised agencies to essentially ignore union contracts with his return-to-office mandate. Trump has also taken the unprecedented step of removing a member of the National Labor Relations Board, eliminating the body’s quorum and rendering it unable to enforce collective-bargaining rights.
