Some Senate Democrats indicated to Jewish Insider on Wednesday they hadn’t ruled out  supporting former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, though many said they weren’t particularly familiar with his policy views and needed to explore them further.

“I have not followed what he has said about our relationship with Israel,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told Jewish Insider. “What I’ve seen of Mike Huckabee lately is that he was selling stuff on TV. I can’t remember what the stuff is.”

Kelly said that he was going to be open-minded about all of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees, including Huckabee.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (who will not be in Congress to vote on Huckabee’s nomination next year), told JI that he knows Huckabee, but that he “never knew of his foreign policy desires. I know he had views on Israel.”

“Israel is complicated, the Middle East is complicated, so we want a person as our ambassador who can really know all the different players and how the United States can play a critical role with Israel in the Middle East,” Cardin said. “I never knew that to be Mike Huckabee’s major interest. So I’ll wait to see how he moves forward. I know in some capacities he’s been a pretty strong person so we’ll see what happens.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), a frequent critic of Israel’s policy in the West Bank, didn’t rule out supporting Huckabee, whom he said he knew years ago when they were both governors.

“I want to talk to him,” Kaine said. “I have a lot of thoughts about the U.S.-Israel relationship. I would want to talk to him, and I’ll have a chance since I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee.”

Pressed on Huckabee’s past comments about settlements and Palestinians, Kaine called them “pretty tough” to accept but said that he wanted to look into Huckabee’s past comments for himself.

“I’m sort of generally aware of some things that have been attributed to him that are sharply different from my points of view,” Kaine said. “But hey, it’s a Republican administration, so folks are going to have some different points of view than me. The issue is we’ve got to try to try to find peace.”

Huckabee has been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a territory Huckabee has referred to as Judea and Samaria, the biblical name Israel uses for the land. He said during a 2015 visit that he believes the West Bank is rightfully part of Israel, and that the term “occupied” is not an appropriate term to describe the territory. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wouldn’t say if he was planning on voting for Huckabee’s nomination, though he noted that the two share a number of positions on Israel. 

“I know he has a strong relationship in support of Israel. Our politics are much different, but I have to think there might be a lot of overlap in terms of our strong views in support of Israel,” Fetterman told JI.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said he would “continue to scrutinize individuals for each of these different positions, and I’ll scrutinize him as well.” Asked about Huckabee’s past comments, Blumenthal said, “I want to hear from him what he believes now in the current situation.”

Some Democrats were more skeptical, however.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) expressed concern about Huckabee’s professional qualifications given the diplomacy involved in the role of ambassador to Israel. 

“The U.S.-Israel relationship is incredibly important,” Coons told JI. “I’m surprised that President-elect Trump seems intent on nominating someone with no diplomatic experience.”

Despite the concerns, most Democrats who spoke to JI said they wanted to engage with Huckabee directly and see how he performs at his confirmation hearing before making a decision. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told JI he had “been seeing reports of things that he said that raise a lot of concerns with me.” 

“We’re gonna give him a fair hearing. I’m withholding judgment until I do the work and the research, but obviously there’s very challenging things going on and we need somebody that’s going to really be able to do that job effectively for the United States.” Booker said.

And others largely avoided commenting on Huckabee specifically.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told JI, “I’m going to withhold judgment until I talk to him.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said, “Just like every other nominee, we’re going to go through regular order, be able to meet with them, question him, have a hearing and vote on him. We’ll see what he says during the hearing.”