With Democratic support, former Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer cleared a key hurdle Thursday morning in her quest to become the nation’s next secretary of labor.

Three Democratic senators — Tim Kaine of Virginia, John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — joined 10 of the 12 Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in voting to advance Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, giving her the support she needed despite one Republican senator’s absence and another’s opposition.

Chavez-DeRemer, a one-term congresswoman from Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, built a closer relationship with some trade unions than other Republicans in Congress. Her father was a Teamster, and the union’s leader urged President Donald Trump to nominate her.

“Representative Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination has the support of unions and businesses,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana and chair of the committee. “If confirmed, she has the opportunity to bring these two groups together to secure a better future for all. That is what she brings to the table and that is why President Trump nominated her.”

While running for reelection, she co-sponsored the union-backed PRO Act. But during her nomination hearing last week she distanced herself from that bill and pledged to support state right-to-work laws, which block unions from charging fees to employees who benefit from union representation but aren’t members. More than half the states have such laws, but Oregon isn’t one of them.

Her disavowal of the PRO Act, which she described as “imperfect” and said she supported because she was representing Oregon at the time, wasn’t enough to convince outspoken critic Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who voted against Chavez-DeRemer because of her prior support.

So far, Paul is the only Senate Republican to publicly oppose Chavez-DeRemer, though it remains to be seen whether other Republicans will join him when the full Senate considers her nomination.

It’s also unclear how many other Democrats might support her. Oregon’s Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley both told the Capital Chronicle last week that they’ll vote against her nomination.

Wyden, a PRO Act supporter, called out “troubling flip-flops,” including Chavez-DeRemer’s “bizarre disavowal” of her previous support for the pro-labor legislation and her assurances to Republican senators that she opposed abortion. While representing Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer frequently promised to block any attempts to restrict access to abortion or limit using government funding for it, though she also voted for or supported several anti-abortion measures.

Merkley, meanwhile, said he plans to vote against all cabinet nominees until Trump and special government employee Elon Musk stop trying to dismantle federal agencies.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who serves as the ranking member on the labor committee, also alluded to Musk in explaining his vote against Chavez-DeRemer.

“Today, we are not voting on who the next secretary of labor is,” Sanders said. “The next secretary of labor, the next secretary of education, the next secretary of housing, the next secretary of the treasury, is Elon Musk.”

If the full Senate confirms Chavez-DeRemer, she’ll be Oregon’s first cabinet member in decades. The most recent was Bonneville Power Administrator Don Hodel, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of energy and secretary of interior, while former Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt was President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of transportation before becoming Oregon’s governor.

The Department of Labor has a $13.9 billion proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year and nearly 16,000 employees. Before her single term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was the mayor of the Portland suburb of Happy Valley, with fewer than 30,000 residents, and co-ran an anesthesia management company with her husband.