Mike Waltz is one step closer to becoming the U.S ambassador to the United Nations after Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) helped Republicans advance him to the Senate floor on Thursday.

In a 12-10 vote, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to report Waltz favorably, overcoming the opposition of Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

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Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, took issue with Waltz’s handling of sensitive information, which led to the Signalgate controversy that ensnared him and other members of the Trump administration.

However, she praised Waltz as a “moderating force” because of his more hawkish foreign policy views, releasing a statement that expressed concern over the noninterventionist wing of the Trump administration.

“Simply put, in a Situation Room filled with people like Vice President [JD] Vance and Undersecretary [of Defense for Policy Elbridge] Colby, who want to retreat from the world, and like [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, I think we’re better off having someone like Mike Waltz present,” Shaheen said.

She also cited a commitment from the administration to provide $75 million in “lifesaving assistance” for displaced populations in Haiti and elsewhere.

The ambassador nomination was briefly delayed on Wednesday due to the objections of Paul, a libertarian Republican who grilled Waltz at his confirmation hearing over the steps he took to slow Trump’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2020.

Paul was willing to vote for Waltz, but without a recommendation, forcing a deadlocked committee vote.

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Democrats, meanwhile, cited Signalgate, in which Waltz added a journalist to a group chat discussing sensitive military plans, as a disqualifying lapse of judgment. He was originally Trump’s national security adviser but was let go from the position in an announcement in which he was simultaneously nominated for the ambassador post in May.

Waltz is the second nominee tapped to represent Trump at the U.N.. The earlier nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), had her name pulled due to concerns about Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) narrow House majority.