Will Democrats save Trump’s Labor nominee? 

“I think the fate of the Labor Secretary will be a huge test of this question.” That’s how a senior source in the labor movement described the battle over Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation to me this week. The question hanging in the balance is whether Donald Trump’s political realignment actually exists. “Is this real or not?” the source asked, reflecting on years of work by Republicans such as Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio, and JD Vance to build a new coalition with labor unions.

The answer, at least as of Chavez-DeRemer’s hearing, appears to be yes. Senate Republicans on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee are poised to send her nomination to the floor of the upper chamber, where Chavez-DeRemer will likely be confirmed with some measure of bipartisan support.

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Daniel Kishi is a policy advisor at American Compass, where conservatives interested in building out a Right-of-center lane for ordinary workers try to put ideological meat on the cultural bones of MAGA (myself included). Asked about the confirmation, he told me: “President Trump has transformed the Republican Party into the party of the working class. Selecting Lori Chavez-DeRemer to serve as his Labor Secretary reflects his desire to deliver on the promise of this realignment”. He added: “Senate Republicans should see this as an opportunity to cement the party’s gains with working Americans and make them a permanent part of their coalition.”

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