Trump at CPAC on Labor Secretary nominee: "...slightly left of center..."
Lori Chavez-DeRemer has bipartisan support, but it may not be enough to save her nomination.
Posted by Peter List, Editor | February 23, 2025
Washington, DC—On Saturday, President Trump delivered a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). While he addressed numerous topics (you can watch his full speech below), at one point while talking about the border, he mentioned his support from union members and discussed his choice for Labor Secretary—Lori Chavez-DeRemer—and the reasons behind his selection.
At around the 24-minute mark below, Trump begins his remarks about Lori Chavez-DeRemer, describing her as “slightly left of center.”
WATCH the full speech below, or jump to the clip here.
….and many of them were unionized.
You know, we have a young lady who's right now going for the Department of Labor and she tends to be a little bit… on the…slightly left of center.
And, everybody said ‘why did I do that?’
I said, “you know why I did that because unions like her and labor likes her and a lot of people like her and she's very solid very strong and she's going to do the right thing but they all voted for us…they didn't vote for me…they voted for us.
We got the teamsters. We got the firefighters. We got the police. We got the Auto Workers…We're so great. We had tremendous support so I think it's nice to give them a person in the center because that's what she is.
She's going to be very good I think but a lot of people said, “why'd you do that?”
I said, “because I want to do something nice for these people that voted for me…"
Oh! Gee! What a great political move that was. now they all say what a great political move.
No, it's just it's all common sense remember that remember that Sean O'Brien was fantastic. The whole group they were great over the past few weeks…
Trump then moved back to his topic of the border and the deportation of migrants.
Trump’s nominee for the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term Republican Congresswoman from Oregon whose name was given to Trump by the Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
Last week, Chavez-DeRemer had her Senate confirmation hearing and, while she does have bipartisan support, her confirmation is in doubt due to Democrats who want to protest President Trump’s actions with Elon Musk in downsizing the federal government.
“In essence, Democrats are poised to spurn a nominee who just might be the best they were ever going to get from a Republican administration on labor issues — and who will likely be far more preferable than any alternative Trump would replace her with” POLITICO reported last week.
The Senate HELP Committee is expected to hold a vote on Chavez-DeRemer Wednesday. If she passes out of committee, the full Senate will then vote on her confirmation.