The Promise of Lori Chavez-DeRemer
By Daniel Kishi, policy advisor at American Compass
When asked about President Trump’s nominees in the months since the November election, a common refrain among congressional Republicans has gone something like: “The president has a mandate from the American people and is entitled to a cabinet of men and women who will execute an agenda that fulfills the promise of his campaign.”
They’re right to be deferential to a party leader who won the popular vote, swept the swing states, and delivered a majority in both chambers. And thus far, Republican senators backed their rhetoric with their votes. All of Trump’s nominees who have come to the Senate floor have been confirmed, including Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kash Patel, nontraditional picks who, at various points of the confirmation process, were thought to be imperiled.
If the Wall Street Journal and National Review editorial boards had their way, this deference would end. And their line in the sand would be former Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of the Department of Labor.
Chavez-DeRemer, a one-term House Republican from Oregon, is not ensnared in scandal. Instead, her crimes, according to these conservative prosecutors in Manhattan, are her support of labor reform legislation and her friendly relationships with the labor unions that champion them.
She stands guilty as charged. A daughter of a union worker, Chavez-DeRemer was one of three Republicans in the last Congress to cosponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act or the PRO Act. This legislation, broadly supported by Democrats and loathed by business interests, would make it easier for workers to unionize and collectively bargain with their employers. Her cosponsorship is one reason Teamsters President Sean O’Brien lobbied Trump to make her labor secretary. In an endorsement published in Compact magazine, the labor leader wrote that Chavez-DeRemer is the “exact type of champion for the American worker that Republicans should get behind if they are serious about becoming the working-class party.”
The PRO Act featured prominently in her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. She defended her support of the legislation, saying it was informed by a desire to “be at th[e] table” during debates about the future of labor and employment law. At the same time, she refused to affirm continued support, distinguishing between her previous role as a lawmaker and her prospective one as an agent of the president. When asked whether she still supports the provisions that would overturn state right-to-work laws or allow for union certification via card check, she said no. She said the legislation is “imperfect” and has told senators in private meetings that it is “unworkable.”
A more tepid outlook on the PRO Act is not an opportunistic reversal of a previously held position; it’s an honest assessment of reality. The legislation, as written, will never become law, a basic fact that even union officials will attest to behind closed doors. Trump’s intent in nominating Chavez-DeRemer wasn’t about advancing a bill that’s dead-on-arrival. It was about showing American workers that they have a place in his coalition.
This is cold comfort to her ideological critics, who think that merely entertaining reforms favored by the labor movement make her persona non grata. And they may have found their resistance hero in Senator Rand Paul, who says her pro-union sympathies might disqualify her from his support and that up to 15 Republican colleagues might join him in opposition. This likely overstates the level of attrition. However, even a handful of defections would require Democrats to carry her across the finish line, an increasingly daunting prospect given the hardened opposition posture they’ve adopted in response to Trump’s shock-and-awe style of governance.
Sinking her nomination in protest would be cutting off their nose to spite their face—Chavez-DeRemer is the best labor secretary Democrats can realistically hope for. But Republicans shouldn’t want or need them to bail her out. Instead, they should embrace her nomination as the opportunity Trump intended, which is to “achieve historic cooperation between Business and Labor that will restore the American Dream for Working Families.”
Cooperation is desperately needed to mediate relationships that have been historically adversarial. Republicans rightly advocate for owners and managers, and celebrate the resulting benefits that enrich the nation. What’s been missing is the good-faith outreach to working Americans. If they are “serious about becoming the working-class party,” particularly after working-class voters helped elect Trump to a second term, they must afford the same respect to workers by giving them a seat at the table and more power to share in the spoils. Chavez-DeRemer, in both her past support of and current posture toward working people, represents a generational change in how to navigate these contentions.
This project poses several questions. How can immigration and trade policies be implemented to induce a tighter labor market and higher wages? How can labor law be reformed to provide workers more bargaining power to advocate their interests and share fully in the prosperity they create? What role should labor unions and their members have in developing these reforms?
These questions will be debated in the months and years to come. Answers that emerge could determine the well-being of American workers, the future of labor-management relations in the United States, and whether the Republican Party can further solidify its support among the working class—including voters who are union members or might wish to join one.
Trump’s labor secretary nominee indicates that he’s interested in debating issues that the vestiges of conservative opinion thought were settled dogma, and wants to give workers a seat at the negotiating table. Chavez-DeRemer’s record and willingness to consider competing perspectives makes her uniquely capable of harmonizing the interests of the party’s coalition. Republicans who want to honor the promise of Trump’s campaign should give her the chance to do so.