The decision by a bipartisan group of senators to block President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Export-Import Bank marked a stinging defeat for Vice President Mike Pence, who worked for months to boost the nomination despite doubts from some administration officials.

Pence continued to push senators to support former New Jersey Republican Rep. Scott Garrett’s nomination to lead the bank until the final hours before the Senate Banking Committee met for a vote Tuesday morning, according to lawmakers and others briefed on the issue.


But Pence’s entreaties on behalf of his old conservative congressional ally weren’t enough to mollify lawmakers after major manufacturers and trade groups raised concerns about Garrett’s ability to oversee an agency he once tried to shut down.

Every Democrat and two Republicans — Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Tim Scott of South Carolina — voted against Garrett’s nomination in a rare rebuke of a nominee by members of the president’s own party.

Rounds told POLITICO he spoke with Pence about the nomination several times and that the vice president reached out to him Monday night before the vote. “He made it very clear his interest in having the nomination go forward,” Rounds said. “I expressed to him my concerns with the nomination and hope that we could find some other alternative.”

A Pence spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Tuesday’s committee vote capped eight months of drama over the nomination, with constant speculation that Garrett would be pushed out by the administration or withdraw amid vocal opposition to the pick from some Republican senators.

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Some administration officials had long ago given up hope that Garrett could win Senate approval, privately grousing that the White House should cut its losses and find a replacement, according to a person briefed on the discussions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin privately raised concerns about Garrett’s nomination, an administration official told POLITICO.

Trump himself, facing intense pressure from business groups who rely on the bank, weighed pulling the nomination, though administration officials later said the president would give Garrett a chance to secure enough support in the Senate.

But Pence remained a steadfast backer of Garrett.

The two served together in the House and are said to share similar worldviews. In Senate testimony last month, Garrett thanked Pence for “taking the time to have been as supportive as he has been of my nomination.”

In October 2016, when Trump was heard bragging about sexual assault in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording, Garrett denounced Trump — and said Pence would be the best nominee to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Garrett was nominated to lead the bank after losing his New Jersey seat, in part because of his social views. POLITICO reported in 2015 that he’d refused to pay National Republican Congressional Committee dues because it recruited gay candidates. He subsequently denied that he opposed gay candidates and said his problem was about support for same-sex marriage.

But Garrett was known as a crusader against the bank — long a favorite target of fiscally conservative Republican lawmakers — when he served in Congress, once saying the bank “embodies the corruption of the free enterprise system.”

Garrett’s record alarmed companies that have benefited from the loan guarantees that it offers foreign buyers of U.S. exports. Firms including Boeing and General Electric, as well as trade groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers, fought the nomination for months. After being nominated, he tried to make the case that he would keep the bank fully functional.

One person familiar with the matter said Pence repeatedly discussed the nomination with senators on the Senate Banking Committee in recent months.

“It’s Mike Pence,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said when asked who was driving the nomination. “It’s the vice president.”

The White House pushed back against the notion that Pence was the sole advocate for Garrett in the administration. “It was the president’s nomination,” a White House official told POLITICO.

As it became clear last week that Garrett didn’t have the votes to clear the committee, some in Washington began scratching their heads, wondering why the White House didn’t save itself the embarrassment and quietly pull the nomination.

“At least for a while early in this process, I think they legitimately thought that Garrett could get the votes,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief policy officer Neil Bradley said. “Once it became clear that Garrett couldn’t get the votes, I’m not sure why they persisted to move all the way through to an actual vote and have him defeated.”

Rounds said he shared his reservations about Garrett “very early on” and that he wanted to give the White House an opportunity to withdraw the nomination. Rounds held off announcing his “no” vote until the committee publicly announced the timing of the vote last week.

Garrett’s failure to win confirmation was the latest roadblock for one of Trump’s nominees. The president has withdrawn more than a dozen nominees since he took office in January, and the White House is coming under new scrutiny for what critics call its poor vetting of candidates for key jobs.

“We’re going to work with the committee on a path forward,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Tuesday’s press briefing. “That hasn’t yet been determined. We’re certainly very disappointed in the Senate Banking Committee.”

White House officials said they were placed in a difficult situation with the Garrett nomination that reflected deep divisions within the Republican Party over the merits of the Ex-Im Bank.

Republican senators who were critical of the bank strongly backed the Garrett pick, seeing it as a sign that the administration supported major changes to the way the agency operates. Those senators made it clear to the White House that if the president pulled the Garrett nomination, they would try to block other nominees to the agency, further complicating the efforts to fill out the bank’s board.

But some Trump backers have long believed Garrett was a bad pick.

“Garrett was a lousy choice foisted on the president by people who clearly don’t have his best interests in mind and use Trump to push their own narrow agenda,” said Robert Wasinger, a former Trump campaign official.

