Jerome Powell survived the most politically fraught period in the Federal Reserve’s history because of the strong ties he developed with lawmakers from both parties — relationships that worked like shock absorbers against President Donald Trump’s threats.
Kevin Warsh doesn’t have that level of support.
Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee say the incoming Fed chair isn’t doing enough to make new friends on Capitol Hill. And as the party gains momentum before the midterms, those lawmakers may soon be in a position to make his life hell.
“He’s more concerned about the president — and the president’s politics — than he is about the concerns of the committee that has oversight over him,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, who described Warsh’s jokey dodge of a question about how he’d grade the economy as “dismissive.” And the Georgia Democrat said Warsh’s refusal to answer a written question about what he would do if the president tried to fire him was “wrongheaded and problematic.”
“He’s now under the oversight of my committee,” added Warnock, the ranking member of a sub-panel that oversees the Fed. “He needs to get used to answering my questions.”
The Senate is scheduled to vote later on Wednesday on Warsh’s nomination to lead the central bank. And while some Democrats might offer their support — Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the lone member to vote "yes" on Tuesday for Warsh’s nomination to the Fed's board of governors — the vote is poised to be the most partisan of any Fed chair ever.
While some Democrats say they were impressed with Warsh in their private meetings with him before his confirmation hearing last month, few are expected to back him — in large part because they think he’s there to do Trump’s bidding.
When asked if he had any advice for his successor, Powell told reporters in January that “if you want democratic legitimacy, you earn it by your interactions with our elected overseers. And so it’s something you need to work hard at, and I have worked hard at it.”
But when it comes to Democrats, Warsh is already on the back foot. Trump has insisted that Powell’s successor will bring down interest rates, and the concern with Warsh “has a lot to do with the perception that the president wants somebody who is first and foremost loyal,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a moderate Virginia Democrat up for reelection this year who has voted for past GOP Fed nominees.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on Senate Banking, said, “Trump has made clear that he wants to do a full takeover of the Fed” and that “if the Republicans won’t stand up against that takeover, the Democrats should not help them.”
Warsh did not respond to requests for comment that were placed through the Hoover Institution, where the former Fed governor is a distinguished visiting fellow in economics.
The looming opposition from Senate Democrats underscores the challenge Warsh will face in navigating Capitol Hill after being selected by a president who has broken many traditions related to Fed independence.
While Warsh has a reputation for being a deft operator around Wall Street and in conservative political circles, his links to members of the minority party are thinner. His recent efforts to parry Democratic inquiries with humor and deflection may create challenges for him in the long run. The Fed will be a prime target for oversight if Democrats take back either chamber of Congress in the midterm elections.
Republicans, who are expected to unanimously back Warsh on the floor, are unmoved by the concerns. Warsh has strong ties with Sens. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee — two prominent members of Senate Banking — and even GOP senators who have raised concerns about Trump’s legal and rhetorical attacks on the Fed say they expect Warsh to operate independently and praise his credentials.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll actually get some bipartisan support,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a senior member of the Banking panel. “If there is not bipartisan support, it will not be a reflection on him. It will be a frustration that Democrat colleagues will be expressing with the administration in general.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, said of the whip count for Warsh. “All he needs is 50.”
Fed chairs have a long history of winning wide bipartisan backing in the Senate. When Trump nominated the Republican Powell during his first term, 39 Democrats supported him on the Senate floor. When President Joe Biden picked Powell for another term in the job, he drew 36 GOP votes.
The previous low for a Fed chair in recent history was Janet Yellen, who drew support from just 11 Republicans when she was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014 — far fewer GOP votes than she got as Biden’s Treasury secretary pick in 2021. (Prior to Yellen, Fed nominees needed a 60-vote supermajority to be approved.)
But regardless of the vote count, Warsh’s relationship with the Hill will likely be different from Powell and other past Fed chairs, who have leaned heavily on allies in Congress to shape policy and insulate themselves from criticism.
For Ben Bernanke, who steered the central bank from 2006 to 2014, relationships on the Hill were particularly key in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. He had to both keep public officials updated on the Fed’s efforts to rescue the economy and work with them to craft bailouts for the U.S. financial system — a politically unpopular program known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
He also helmed the Fed during negotiations for the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most extensive recent adjustment to the central bank’s authority. The result gave the Fed more regulatory tools to wield against banks, though Congress did pare back its emergency lending authority.
Bernanke at his final press conference, offered this advice to his successor, Janet Yellen: “Congress is our boss.”
Yellen met with members of both parties but did not put nearly as much energy into building ties on the Hill. She had a good relationship with then-GOP House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry. But during her tenure as chair, she clashed with some Republicans on that panel regularly, as some grew unhappy with near-zero interest rates. She also argued against efforts to give the Government Accountability Office power to investigate the Fed’s monetary policy decisions — legislation often dubbed “Audit the Fed.”
Powell promised to “wear the carpets of Capitol Hill out” when he became Fed chair in 2018, and there’s now empirical evidence that he followed through. He met with senators more than twice as often as did his predecessors, according to researchers at the University of Maryland. And his strong relationships in Congress have been critical to surviving relentless attacks from Trump across both administrations. Powell’s goodwill on the Hill was also one reason why the Fed was given an extensive mandate during the Covid-19 pandemic to rescue the economy.
Still, many Republicans echoed Trump in souring on Powell, especially toward the end of his term.
Powell also faced harsh criticism from progressive Democrats who hammered his approach to bank regulation and, at times, interest rates. But by the end of his tenure, as Trump escalated his attacks on Powell and the Fed, Democrats largely backed the central bank chief (the party’s X account even put out a memorably fawning post in January supporting the Trump-appointed chair).
With Warsh, that dynamic is poised for a reset.
“It’s not really a commentary on Kevin,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said of the lack of bipartisan support for Warsh. “It’s a commentary on the fact that we still believe that the most important thing to the dollar and to the economy is to have a stabilized Federal Reserve. And we question whether people would believe that we’re going to have an independent Federal Reserve if Kevin Warsh is there, considering what the president has done — and has tried to do — to Jerome Powell.”
Victoria Guida contributed to this report.
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