2024 GOP White House hopefuls lead opposition to Biden Cabinet

A slate of potential 2024 White House hopefuls are leading the opposition among Republican senators to President Biden’s Cabinet nominees.

Of the 21 Cabinet nominations confirmed by the Senate since Jan. 20, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) has voted the most against the president’s picks, according to data compiled by The Hill, opposing 19 and supporting just two: Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

No senator voted against Tai and only four voted against Rouse.

After Hawley, GOP Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) have opposed 18 of Biden’s Cabinet nominees, while Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) has opposed 17.

Each of the three, like Hawley, are viewed as potential 2024 White House contenders.

Hawley, who supported challenges to the 2020 election results in Congress, told CNN that he was taking Biden’s Cabinet picks “one at a time.”

“If there is someone I think will be good to Missouri, that I can defend to my voters, somebody who I think is going to be good for the job, I’ll vote for them,” Hawley said last month. 

Scott’s office said in a statement that the Florida senator — who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee and supported challenging Biden’s win in Pennsylvania — has spoken with all of the Cabinet picks before they received votes on the Senate floor.

“Throughout this process, Senator Scott has been clear that he will not vote for any nominee who supports raising taxes or backs a job-killing agenda. He also does not support nominees who seek to re-join the disastrous Iran Deal, resume Obama-Biden era appeasement policies toward Cuba or establish weak policies that allow the U.S. to be taken advantage of by Communist China,” his office said.

In some cases, the opposition to Biden’s Cabinet nominees opens up splits among Republicans from the same state.

Cruz, who led the challenge to Arizona’s November results, has supported just three of Biden’s Cabinet picks while Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has voted for 15, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, all of whom Cruz voted against.

Cornyn told Texas reporters during a conference call last month that the “new president should be able to pick, within the limits, the people he wants in his Cabinet.” 

Similarly while Hawley has opposed 19 of Biden’s Cabinet picks, Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), a member of GOP leadership who is retiring at the end of the 117th Congress, has opposed only five.

Biden’s picks didn’t face the biggest opposition just from Republicans who will want to defeat him, if he runs for reelection in 2024.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) ranked fifth among Senate Republicans in opposing the most Cabinet picks at 15. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who is at the center of deals to fund the government, voted against 14, along with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who ran for president in 2016, and first-term Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).

The top 10 for votes against Biden’s Cabinet was rounded out by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who both voted against 13 of Biden’s nominees.

It’s hardly the first time senators with presidential aspirations have led the charge against the nominees from a president of an opposite party.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) voted “no” against 20 of then-President Trump’s Cabinet nominees in early 2017, while Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) voted “no” 19 times, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) voted against nominees, according to The Times.

All besides Merkley made White House runs in 2020, with Harris eventually tapped by Biden to be his vice president.

Democratic opposition to Biden’s nominees is rare, but not non-existent.

Sanders is the only member of the caucus who has formally voted against one of Biden’s picks: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

And opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) helped sink Neera Tanden’s nomination to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), meanwhile, has voted for all 21 of Biden’s Cabinet picks, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), who is up for reelection next year, has only voted against one.