President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary appears to be hitting some potentially insurmountable hurdles, with the longtime Fox News host struggling to win over undecided Senate Republicans as he faces numerous allegations about his interpersonal relationships and alcohol use. 

With no Democrats expected to vote to confirm Hegseth, Republicans can only afford to lose three of their own senators in order to push his nomination over the finish line. At least seven Republicans have privately said they won’t vote to confirm Hegseth, two senators familiar with the whip count told Jewish Insider. 

Five GOP senators, two of whom are publicly supporting Hegseth’s nomination, say that the former Fox anchor’s path to confirmation is extremely slim. Three of those five predicted that the nomination would be pulled or Hegseth would withdraw by next week at the latest, despite his plans to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and other senators at the Capitol in the coming days. 

“I don’t see how he survives through next week,” a senator who serves on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) leadership team said. 

The two senators with a more optimistic assessment of Hegseth’s chances said he could survive the firestorm if there aren’t any more damning allegations that emerge.

“I think it depends on if anything else comes out. Are there more allegations from women in his life? Or is this it? If there’s more, then it gets bumpy, that’s a different calculus,” one of the senators told JI. 

One of those two senators said that Hegseth only had a path if several female Republicans got on board, specifically mentioning Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as must-win votes for Hegseth to be confirmed.

Behind the scenes, a group of more hawkish members are already pushing for Trump to select Ernst for the role, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Among those making the case for choosing Ernst is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who frequently engages with the president-elect on congressional matters. 

It is not clear if Trump is interested in Ernst for the position, though the Iowa senator would make history as the first female defense secretary if selected. She would also have an easy path to confirmation, almost certainly with bipartisan support. 

For her part, Ernst deflected when asked by reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday if she was interested in the role, saying that Hegseth “is the nominee.” Ernst, who has led on issues related to domestic violence and military sexual assault, met with Hegseth on Wednesday afternoon as part of his outreach to GOP senators. She said afterwards that the two had “a frank and thorough conversation,” though she would not say if he had convinced her to support his nomination, which has become imperiled over allegations of alcohol abuse and mistreatment of women. 

The effort to boost Ernst comes as the Trump transition team has begun considering alternatives to Hegseth amid concerns about his path forward, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) among the list of contenders.