A Princeton and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

Conservative organizations are targeting Republican senators, saying that they will pay a price if they do not back the president-elect’s choice for defense secretary.

The Senate Armed Services panel has 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats, so Hegseth can only lose a single Republican, if all Democrats oppose him, for the nomination to be voted favorably out of committee.