WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s nominee for labor secretary, Julie Su, won praise at her Senate hearing Thursday as “a champion of the working class” even as some key Democrats were unwilling to voice support, creating uncertainty about her confirmation prospects.
A handful of moderate Democrats have not publicly stated whether they will vote for Su’s nomination ahead of Thursday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Biden in February picked Su, a civil rights attorney and the deputy labor secretary, to replace Marty Walsh, the former mayor of Boston, to lead the Department of Labor.
The daughter of an immigrant mother who arrived on a cargo ship, Su would be the Biden administration’s first Asian American to serve in the Cabinet at the secretary level. Biden last month called her proof of the “American dream” and said “she’s committed to making sure that dream is in reach for every American.”
Su tapped into that spirit in her testimony, recounting how her parents were able to claw their way into the middle class through jobs that provided benefits as well as becoming entrepreneurs.
“When he announced my nomination for U.S Secretary of Labor, the president called me ‘the American Dream.’ My parents believed in it, I benefited from it, and I want to do my part to make sure it is a reality for workers across the nation,” Su said.