The Senate voted to advance President Trump's pick to lead the Labor Department on Thursday, with one Republican, Rand Paul (Ky.), voting no.
15 Democrats and nearly all Republicans backed Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who faces a final vote on Monday.
“In her public service, she’s put in the work to seek differing perspectives and to find common ground,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Chavez-DeRemer on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s mother would always tell her, and I quote, ‘When you know better, you do better,’” Thune added. “And we need the Labor Department to do better than what we saw from the Biden administration.”
Chavez-DeRemer served one term in Congress as a Republican before losing re-election in the fall.
Trump's nomination of Chavez-DeRemer was seen as a gesture of goodwill to traditionally Democratic union voters who embraced Trump in November's election.
Still, some Republicans had voiced concern about Chavez-DeRemer's union-friendly politics. No Republican was more outspoken on the issue than Paul, who questioned her support of a sweeping bill that would overturn right-to-work laws nationwide, the PRO Act.
Right-to-work laws allow employees the freedom not to join a union or pay union dues.
“I’m not going to support her,” Paul told NBC News in late January. “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."
Paul stuck to his guns, becoming the only Republican not to advance Chavez-DeRemer on Thursday.
Paul sits on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which previously voted to advance Chavez-DeRemer in a 14-9 vote.
During a confirmation hearing, Chavez-DeRemer was grilled over her past support of the PRO Act by Paul, who got her to say she no longer supports overturning right-to-work.
Chavez-DeRemer told the committee she would faithfully execute President Trump's agenda, while framing her support of the PRO Act as part of her past as a congresswoman from Oregon.
“I recognize that that bill wasn’t perfect, and I also recognize that I am no longer representing Oregon as a lawmaker,” she said.
“If confirmed, my job will be to implement President Trump’s policy division, and my guiding principle will be President Trump’s guiding principle, ensuring a level playing field for businesses, unions and, most importantly, the American worker.”
