Dear Senate GOP: NO on Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Secretary

Will Donald Trump get a clean sweep in the US Senate for all of his submitted nominees? 

Let’s hope not. 

Trump has made some surprising choices for his cabinet positions. Pete Hegseth brings a rank-and-file perspective and a return of the warrior culture to the Pentagon, even if his qualifications may look light. Tulsi Gabbard would not have been my pick as Director of National Intelligence, but she brings the necessary skeptical approach to the status quo for this administration — and John Ratcliffe as CIA Director will keep a reliable hand on the rudder as a partner. I still don’t support Robert Kennedy as HHS Secretary; I understand the need to reward the political alliance, but RFK would have been a better fit at the Food and Drug Administration. At least RFK has the same skeptical approach to the establishment elite as Trump desires, and has pledged to subordinate his agenda to Trump’s. (We’ll see.)

That’s not true of Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer has no record of taking on the establishment clique and looking for reform. Chavez-DeRemer is the establishment, someone who not only has a clear bias to Big Labor, but also to Planned Parenthood and a host of other alliances that are aligned far more with the bureaucratic state than with Trump’s constituents and constituencies. 

How did Chavez-DeRemer get this appointment? As with RFK, Trump understandably feels the need to reward Teamsters president Sean O’Brien for remaining neutral-ish in the election. O’Brien spoke at the Republican convention, and got frozen out of the Democrat convention for it. Unlike RFK, O’Brien didn’t endorse Trump, but he certainly made it clear that Trump didn’t bother him. In small-d democratic politics, taking that kind of political risk creates a chit that can get called in after the election. 

The objection to Chavez-DeRemer doesn’t just rest on O’Brien’s efforts to get her this appointment. O’Brien is a staunch Big Labor figure who nevertheless engages with others and looks for compromises. That is very much not the case with Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers and the main figure in locking children out of schools during the pandemic. This was how Weingarten reacted in November to Trump’s pick:

It is significant that the Pres-elect nominated Rep. Chavez-DeRemer for Labor. Her record suggests real support of workers & their right to unionize. I hope it means the Trump admin will actually respect collective bargaining and workers’ voices from Teamsters to teachers.

— Randi Weingarten 🇺🇸💪🏿👩‍🎓🟣 (@rweingarten) November 23, 2024

Randi Weingarten is a rabid progressive and part of the “deep state” that Trump wants to demolish. If Weingarten endorses Chavez-DeRemer, Trump should take that as a warning that her appointment will undermine the work Trump insists that he will accomplish.

And it’s not just that Weingarten likes the cut of her jib, either. My PJ Media colleagues Stephen Kruiser and Catherine Salgado remind their readers that Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three House Republicans to vote for the PRO Act, which would have led to Big Labor control over federal labor policy and enforcement, as well as a massive expansion of federal jurisdiction:

The PRO Act is a sop to Big Labor that got its start with California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) back in 2018. AB5 was a major effort to upend the freelancer-driven gig economy — specifically rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, which had long been targets politicians who are funded by labor unions. My Townhall Media colleagues in California would have been adversely affected by AB5 as well. The bill was so noxious that the left-leaning California electorate passed a proposition in 2020 that carved out exceptions to AB5. 

AB5 was one of the worst ideas to come out of California’s progressive fever dream, and the PRO Act seeks to make a version of it federal law. 

The PRO Act is the latest attempt in Big Labor’s years-long effort to do away with secret ballots in union voting and do things via an insidious process called “card check” which, per the Wall Street Journal, will implement “a coercive process whereby organizers confront employees individually and relentlessly, at work and at home, until they sign a petition card. If the union can collect cards from half of the workforce, it gets certified without a vote.” In other words, it legalizes union thuggery. 

Card check was one of the big issues that we were fighting against back in the Tea Party days. It remains such a high priority for the unions that they’re still working on making it law over a decade later.

This is the opposite of “draining the swamp.” Chavez-DeRemer wanted to create an entirely new swamp and allow Weingarten and other radical labor leaders to run it. As Labor Secretary, Chavez-DeRemer would have enough power to create nearly the same amount of damage, and mainly in the regulatory dark where Republicans in Congress could do little to stop or reverse it. 

And that damage will come just as worker freedom is finally gaining ground in Washington:

Today, I am proud to introduce the National Right to Work Act, which protects workers in all 50 states from being forced to pay dues to a labor union as a condition of their employment. I look forward to working with Mark Mix and @Right2Work to get it passed.

Read more:… pic.twitter.com/wsfqw77bX5

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) February 12, 2025

President of the National Right to Work Foundation, Mark Mix, appeared with Rep. Wilson in the below video and said in an email release, “Anyone who truly stands with workers and against the union boss special interests that seek to force workers to pay union dues should support Senator Paul and Congressman Wilson’s bill.”

The nomination of Chavez-DeRemer should get rejected by the GOP caucus entirely. Chavez-DeRemer is no “brokenist,” and certainly does not have a “creator” mentality to dismantle the corrupt status quo in the Department of Labor. Chavez-DeRemer is an establishmentarian that will side with the bureaucratic state every single time over workers and their liberty. 

Send Chavez-DeRemer back to the White House, and let Trump choose a nominee that fits the moment and the opportunity.