Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) believes there could be as many as 15 Senate Republicans who ultimately vote against the confirmation of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Labor.

Chavez-DeRemer, who flipped a blue U.S. House District from blue to red in 2022 before losing her re-election bid back in November, testified before the before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She faced scrutiny from both parties as she answered questions on Elon Musk and her past support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or Pro Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize at the national level.

While speaking with NBC News, Senator Paul indicated that he did not intend to support Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination due to her past support for the Pro Act.“I’m not going to support her,” said Paul, who sits on the committee and will be overseeing her nomination. “I’m the national spokesman and lead author of the right-to-work bill. Her support for the PRO Act, which would not only oppose national right to work but would pre-empt state law on right to work — I think it’s not a good thing.”

The Kentucky lawmaker went on to state that as many of 15 of his GOP Senate colleagues could ultimately vote against Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, stating that her support for the Pro Act will be tough to look past for him personally. An exact list of Republican skeptics is not known, though Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) previously stated that he found the nomination “concerning.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky at a photo reception before the 2015 Tarrant County Lincoln Day dinner in Fort Worth, Texas
Photo: Gage Skidmore

Senator Paul pressed Chavez-DeRemer over her past support for the legislation during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing. He expressed concern that the Pro Act is aimed at ending right-to-work laws, which currently exist in 26 states.

“The PRO Act wasn’t just about organizing or enabling unions to organize, which they already have the right to do. The PRO Act was about overturning right to work laws in 26 states, half of the country. Most of these states would argue that this would be a horrendous invasion of their prerogatives. The chairman asked you and then the ranking member asked you, do you still support the PRO Act?” Paul asked.

“The right to work is a fundamental tenet of labor laws where states have a right to choose if they want to be a right to work state and that should be protected,” Chavez-DeRemer answered, at which point Paul noted that the legislation would have terminated right-to-work laws. “I signed on to the PRO Act because I was representing Oregon’s 5th District. But I also signed on to the PRO Act because I wanted to be at that table and have those conversations, but I fully, fairly, and support states who want to protect their right to work. I have said that to every Senator that I have visited with,” the nominee replied before again reiterating that she is not in favor of terminating right-to-work.

In a separate interview with Breitbart News, Paul reiterated that it will be difficult to support the nomination. “And basically, just as you don’t have compulsory union dues, you can still have unions, you can still do collective bargaining, you just can’t force people out of the workplace if they don’t want to pay dues for political reasons,” the senator explained.

“And this is what the national right-to-work does. It would become a national law,” he added before shifting to his concerns about Chavez-DeRemer. “And the PRO Act would not only not have right-to-work nationally, but it would preempt and override all the state laws. It would repeal the state right-to-work laws. This would be a transformation that would be such an assault on freedom of choice for employees that you can’t imagine,” Paul warned.

“This is pretty dramatic, and I have not opposed any of Trump’s nominees, but, you know, I lead the effort for a national law, and I’ve been a big supporter of the state laws, been close to the right-to-work movement for a decade or more, and so I can’t in good conscience support her since she supported the PRO Act,” he added.

Chavez-DeRemer was widely seen as an unorthodox Republican nominee due to her support for both the Pro Act and the CHIPS Act. The nomination was widely seen as an olive branch to labor unions, particularly the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which broke with decades of precedence by refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the presidential election.

“Well we came to it, obviously we didn’t pick any candidate in the presidential election because our members spoke and they spoke loud. We were divided. 65% of our members were not for the Harris-Waltz ticket. And when we obviously started this process after the election, we needed a Secretary of Labor that was pro-labor. We didn’t care if it was a Democrat, Republican, Independent. We want someone that’s going to work hard on behalf of the American workers,” O’Brien told Fox News when asked about the decision to withhold the union’s endorsement.

“And Lori Chavez-DeRemer is the best choice and hopefully will be confirmed. It shouldn’t be a controversial confirmation either. Well, we’ll see because maybe there’s a little bit of Republican resistance to her nomination. She was a congresswoman from Oregon. She’s got a pedigree that unions I think would probably appreciate,” he added.

While Chavez-DeRemer has been facing some resistance from the Republican Party, she is expected to receive support from some Democrats. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) told local reporters that he plans to back her, while Oregon’s other senator, Ron Wyden, expressed openness to supporting the nomination as well.

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