Doug Burgum, Kristi Noem, and Sean Duffy—are among President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Their potential appointments could significantly influence Minnesota and neighboring states.

The Senate is set to vote Thursday on President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum testifies Jan. 16, 2025, before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during a hearing on his nomination to be secretary of the Interior. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) This article was produced for ...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel testify before Senate committees on Capitol Hill Thursday as urgency builds to confirm President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations.

Good morning, Early Birds. Our thoughts are with the victims of the plane and helicopter crash at DCA last night. Send tips to [email protected]. Thanks for waking up with us. In today’s edition … Dems flip state Senate seat in deep-red Iowa district … but first … Are Democrats getting their mojo back? The opposition party claimed an early win in Donald Trump’s second term yesterday after his administration rescinded an order freezing federal grants that caused widespread confusion. It came after Democrats in Congress banded together to raise alarm about the order, arguably their most cohesive moment of pushback against Trump since he took office last week and unleashed a flurry of executive actions. It was a test of the strength and dexterity of the Democratic opposition, which has so far been more muted than it was after Trump took office in 2017. It’s not clear how much their opposition to the order swayed the administration — if at all — but the moment united Democrats. “They started to wake up,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of the liberal grassroots group Indivisible, told us last night. “I think they’re opening their eyes. They’re not fast asleep. They’re starting to pay attention to exactly how serious this is going to be.” Indivisible and other outside groups had been pushing for Democratic lawmakers to act more urgently and aggressively to counter Trump. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) sought to keep expectations in check during an afternoon news conference at the Capitol, calling the end of the freeze a “small victory” in a “long war.” At the same time, there was a fresh air of excitement to his remarks. “We have a lot of energy, and we have a lot of talent in our caucus, and you’re going to see us focusing on a whole bunch of different things,” Schumer said. “It just so happened that this funding freeze was so, so broad and so cruel that we knew we could arouse the American people. And one other good thing happened: The American people see that we can win.” Senate Democrats are now fully turning their attention to stopping Trump’s nominee to lead the budget office, Russell Vought. That’s a tall order in a GOP-controlled Senate where no Republicans have publicly expressed concern about Vought, let alone announced opposition. Earlier in the week, Democrats pushed to at least postpone a committee vote on Vought’s nomination, but it remains scheduled for noon today. In the chaotic aftermath of a vague White House budget office memo instituting the freeze, Democrats highlighted stories of disruptions to programs that Americans rely on, such as Medicaid and Head Start. They also took the opportunity to underscore their argument that Trump was grabbing power without any checks on his authority. Several Democratic state attorneys general requested a restraining order on the federal aid pause in courts, and Democratic members of Congress said Republicans need to step up and retain the Hill’s power of the purse. Senate Democrats spent last night delivering floor speeches about how Trump’s freeze hurt their states, filling the hours of time left before another confirmation vote. In rescinding the budget office’s order yesterday, the White House attributed the chaos to a court injunction and “dishonest media coverage.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s other, more targeted orders related to federal spending remain “in full force and effect.” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) told us that the White House is clearly still freezing federal funds. Duckworth said she’s still hearing from organizations and individuals affected by it, highlighting a Chicago-based nonprofit that serves homeless youths. Those stories led to the order’s reversal but haven’t stopped the problem, she said. “It came from the pressure campaign,” she said of the reversal. “And for me, when I got calls from people who are in red congressional districts, I’m like, ‘Call your congressman. I’ll fight for this, but you need to call your Republican congressman or congresswoman in Illinois and tell them this is a problem.’” Still, the pace of the Trump administration’s evolving orders also came with some whiplash for Democrats, and the party’s response was not without scrutiny as some activists pushed for Democratic lawmakers to show more fight. Democrats in the House, which was not in session this week, scheduled an “emergency meeting” for 1 p.m. yesterday in response to the freeze. But by that time, a federal judge had temporarily halted the order, and then the White House rescinded it. Senate Democrats pivoted Tuesday morning, reorienting a news conference that was supposed to be about Jan. 6 pardons to address the freeze. Indivisible told members to call Democratic senators to urge them to “grind Senate activity to a halt until this freeze is lifted.” Another liberal organizing group, Our Revolution, demanded that Democratic senators “refuse to advance or confirm any of Trump’s nominees” until the freeze ends. “Talk is cheap, and talk is part of any response … but it can’t be the entirety of it,” Levin told us. “What we need Democrats to do is use the power where they have it.” Some Democratic senators got the message. Twenty-two members of the Senate Democratic caucus — nearly half — voted Tuesday to oppose Sean P. Duffy’s nomination to be transportation secretary, despite voting to advance his nomination before the news of the freeze. More Democrats voted yesterday to oppose Lee Zeldin as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Duckworth, among those who voted no on Duffy and Zeldin, told us that she will continue voting no for other nominees amid the fallout from the freeze. “Donald Trump needs to know that if he’s going to use the levers of government to harm working families, we’re going to stand in his way,” Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both New Jersey Democrats, said in a statement on their votes against Duffy. What we’re watching On the Hill The Senate is scheduled to meet at 11 a.m. to consider Trump’s nomination of Doug Burgum to be interior secretary and Chris Wright to be energy secretary. Other notable Senate committee meetings scheduled for today: At 9:30 a.m., the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to be FBI director. At 10 a.m., the Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence. At 10 a.m., the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to be secretary of health and human services. At 10:25 a.m., the Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to meet and consider the nomination of Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador. At noon, the Budget Committee is scheduled to meet and consider the nomination of Vought for budget director. The campaign Dems flip state Senate seat in deep-red Iowa district Democrats are celebrating after winning a special election Tuesday for an Iowa state Senate seat in a district that Trump won by 21 percentage points in November. The Democratic candidate, Mike Zimmer, defeated Republican rival Katie Whittington 52 percent to 48 percent in the eastern Iowa district. They were vying to fill the seat after its former occupant, Chris Cournoyer, gave it up to become the state’s lieutenant governor. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the party’s top group in state legislative races, called Zimmer’s win an “earthquake victory” that “puts Republicans across the country on notice.” We caught up yesterday with Zimmer, who said he entered the race with “no illusions of any national implications or anything like that.” He credited his win to his decades-long experience working in and round the region’s public schools. He also cited strong support from the Iowa Democratic Party and Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, and he said there was a dearth of negative advertising, allowing him to “stay on point with Iowa values.” “I have a long history here, and it’s about trust,” Zimmer told us. “They’ve seen me operate at a whole different bunch of levels my entire life. Whether that can be replicated in other counties if they get the right candidate, then absolutely [there are broader lessons].” Elsewhere: Josh Weil, the Democrat who advanced Tuesday to the April 1 special election to replace former congressman Michael Waltz (R-Florida), is seeing momentum despite facing long odds in the solidly red district. His campaign tells us he’s now raised over $1 million, meaning he collected around $750,000 in the past three weeks. That kind of fundraising ensures Weil can run a serious race against the GOP candidate, Trump-endorsed Randy Fine, at a time when House Republicans cannot afford any upsets with a tiny majority. For DNC chair Ben Wikler, one of the leading candidates for Democratic National Committee chair, has landed the endorsement of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). Pelosi, in a statement released yesterday evening by Wikler’s campaign, said the Wisconsin party leader was the “candidate best suited to lead us to a stronger DNC and many Democratic victories.” Her endorsement came four days before the DNC chair election, which is being held at the committee’s winter meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. On the move Former senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) and Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager, have joined the Global Advisory Council for Coinbase, the cryptocurrency platform. Coinbase also announced yesterday that it was adding two other members to the advisory council: Bill Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Luis Alberto Moreno, former president of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. The Media Must reads: From The Post: Trump’s quick win on Colombian migrant flights may be a loss for the dollar. By David J. Lynch. Republicans back RFK Jr. despite years of support for abortion rights. By Paul Kane. Mitch McConnell had polio as a child. It could cloud RFK Jr.’s nomination. By Rachel Roubein, Liz Goodwin and Lena H. Sun. White House regroups as funding freeze chaos recalls first term’s travel ban. By Isaac Arnsdorf, Jacqueline Alemany, Natalie Allison, Liz Goodwin and Jeff Stein. Vance, Catholic bishops’ sparring on immigrants extends GOP-Church feud. By Michelle Boorstein. From across the web: To Pay for the Trump Tax Cuts, House GOP Floats Plan to Slash Benefits for the Poor and Working Class. By ProPublica’s Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott. The conservative ex-FBI agents who have Kash Patel’s ear. By NBC News’s Ryan J. Reilly. Viral Not Safe for Senate. Thanks for reading. You can follow Meryl and Patrick on X: @MerylKornfield and @PatrickSvitek.

Will the Senate GOP confirm controversial picks like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr.? Here’s the hearings schedule and list of who’s been confirmed.

Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum previously told lawmakers that national security and the economy are his top priorities for leading the Interior Department.

The Senate has confirmed five members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet since he assumed office on Jan. 20, with five more ready for floor action in the coming days. The pace is faster than in 2017, the first time Trump had Republican control of Washington. By this point in his first term, only two were confirmed.

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Senate Democrats revolted on Tuesday following the Trump administration’s sweeping freeze on federal aid by tanking a vote to sanction the International Criminal Court and promising there might be similar moves to come if the White House does not change its tune in short order.