Su, 51, would oversee unemployment insurance, worker safety, job training, and other aspects of the economic recovery — not to mention implementing the sweeping pro-labor agenda Biden campaigned on, which would increase workplace requirements and make it easier for workers to organize, among other things. Many of these responsibilities dovetail with her current work in California, where she has overseen jobless benefits and worker safety as millions of Californians confront the pandemic.

The state’s coronavirus response provides some indication of how Su could tackle thorny federal issues — including mandatory workplace safety rules. California became one of just 14 states to implement its own workplace restrictions when it issued an emergency temporary standard, which outlines steps employers must take to protect workers from exposure and which Biden has vowed to pursue from the Oval Office.

Though Su herself has not spoken publicly about the standard, she is believed to have supported it. She will become the one responsible for implementing a federal version if chosen to head DOL.

California labor officials also have moved aggressively under Su’s watch to enforce a contentious new worker classification law, AB 5, that until recently required California’s gig companies to treat their workers as employees. The Labor Commissioner’s Office accused Uber and Lyft of wage theft in separate lawsuits filed in August before gig companies carved themselves out of the law by spending $200 million to support a ballot measure that voters approved in November.

In Su’s corner: Dozens of immigration and labor organizations, led by the National Immigration Law Center, who sent a letter to Biden’s team Dec. 4 voicing their support. The Los Angeles-based immigration rights nonprofit was joined by the Center for Popular Democracy, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, National Partnership for Women and Families, One Fair Wage, and United Farm Workers of America, among others. They said Su would “maximize the impact the Labor Department can have in addressing economic inequality and racial injustice.”

Biden’s transition team has been conscious to create a diverse Cabinet. Already, he has appointed the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, the first female intelligence chief and the first Latino Homeland Security head.

But the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus has heavily lobbied Biden’s transition team to nominate more Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Members met with chairs Jeff Zients and Ted Kaufman Dec. 7 to suggest candidates, including Su, and express concern that there may not be adequate AAPI representation in Biden’s Cabinet as a whole; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) went as far as to label it “extremely disrespectful.” And on Thursday, Sen. Mazie Hirono threw her weight behind the Californian as well.

AAPI Victory Fund, a super PAC focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islanders, sent a letterto the president-elect Nov. 21 backing Su to lead DOL, calling her an “exceptionally qualified AAPI candidate who we believe should be under consideration.”

“She’s a woman, she’s AAPI, she’s incredibly highly qualified, she has the support of unions in California and she has done yeoman’s work in the labor movement,” AAPI Victory Fund Chair Shekar Narasimhan told POLITICO. “Would you not want to have that person sitting there tomorrow morning?”

Su has declined to publicly discuss the role.

Unlike other rumored favorites to lead DOL — mostly white and male names that have split support from organized labor, such as former Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris, Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh — Su would be relatively new to the world of Washington politics.

Su is “a very impressive person,” American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders said. AFSCME, which represents some 1.4 million active and retired workers across the U.S., has formally endorsed Walsh for the job. “She’s an up-and-comer, and if she wants to come to Washington, it would be great to have her in the Labor Department.”

“But I think you need someone a little more seasoned and has relationships here.”

Another reason Su may lose out: Biden has put particular value on people with whom he’s worked before, and the Californian does not have the ties to him that others have.

Meanwhile, California’s own unemployment agency problems have exploded during the pandemic, which could pose a liability for her nomination.

But Walsh is widely expected to run for a third term in 2021, despite not having announced his plans. Late last month, Walsh told reporters he looks forward to working with the Biden administration “as mayor for the many years to come,” squashing speculation that he could be headed to Washington and creating a potential vacuum for other candidates.

“As Mayor Walsh has said before, you’re always honored to be considered to be in a Cabinet. But the mayor has made clear that right now the only thing on his plate is dealing with the pandemic. That’s the only thing he’s considering right now,” said one close adviser to Walsh.

That’s not surprising based on Walsh’s recent fundraising: He raised more than $323,000 in November and recently spent $40,000 on polling. Walsh also didn’t endorse Biden in the Democratic primary. The mayor stayed neutral.

Some Washingtonians might have seen Su for the first time in a full-page attack ad in the Wall Street Journal that ran Dec. 4. The California Business and Industrial Alliance, a new trade group formed to fight a 2004 state labor law, pointed to rampant fraud and delayed benefit payments that continue to dog the state’s workforce agency.

“Californians need Julie Su focused on fixing the state’s broken bureaucracy, rather than looking for her next job as Biden’s Labor Secretary,” the ad contended.

Su does not run the state’s Employment Development Department, but it has fallen under her purview since Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her labor secretary nearly two years ago.

Other powerful California business groups, however, appear to support Su.

The head of the California Chamber of Commerce, which annually targets a host of union-backed bills as “job killers” in the Legislature, offered a glowing assessment. “Julie Su has always been open to the views of employers and is willing to listen to the concerns of the business community,” CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg said in a statement Wednesday. “As she has carried out the goals of the Governor, she has done so with a good deal of professionalism.”

Other industry leaders described her as open-minded and fair, with a good understanding of the economy and a creative approach to solving problems.

“I’ve seen her operate,” said Lance Hastings, president of the California Manufacturing & Technology Association, “and the authenticity with which she approaches her job is really the most admirable thing. I really admire her.”

Su became a civil rights attorney after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1994. Early in her legal career, she represented a group of 72 garment workers from Thailand who had been brought to a Los Angeles-area compound where they worked for up to 16 hours a day until they were freed in a 1995 raid, according to an account published this summer on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History site.

Her team at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center sued the sweatshop operators in the landmark El Monte case, as well as the retailers and manufacturers that had ordered the garments. They won more than $4 million in restitution for the plaintiffs. Their work helped to expose modern-day exploitation and human trafficking in the United States, and also paved the way for changes in immigration law, including the creation of the T visa for victims of human trafficking.

The Los Angeles Times called Su a “Freedom Fighter” in a 1995 profile of the then 26-year-old.

“Three weeks ago, as cameras clicked and whirred,” wrote Pamela Warrick for the Times, “Su led the first of 72 Thai garment workers to freedom after their rescue from an El Monte sweatshop and subsequent detention by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. She was foremost among lawyers who had negotiated the workers’ release on bond and found housing and jobs for them.”

Su was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant in 2001 for her work as a civil rights and workers’ advocate.

Her public-sector career began in 2011 when then-Gov. Jerry Brown made her California’s labor commissioner, a position she held until her labor secretary appointment in early 2019.

The state’s labor standards division under Su launched a “Wage Theft is a Crime” campaign and focused on intentional labor violations, rejecting the random inspection approach of past administrations. That strategy was welcomed by employers struggling to compete with underground businesses that didn’t pay the minimum wage, said David Kersh, who heads the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee, a watchdog group monitoring the construction industry in the Southwest.

“Rather than focusing on going after petty, smaller issues, how do you compile your energy, your resources, to really focus on the real serious violators and make that your focus?” Kersh said.

Su’s proponents note she would bring to Washington experience in rolling out efforts to retrain workers whose jobs are quickly being replaced by robots. One such program, for hundreds of dockworkers and mechanics at the Port of Los Angeles, became a key part of a 2019 labor agreement following an automation dispute.

But at least one Republican state lawmaker questioned the idea of elevating Su in light of California’s unemployment agency’s troubles. Among them: a large backlog of unpaid claims and a prison fraud ring that, district attorneys said, has bilked hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment aid this year. A governor-appointed strike team also found that workers not fluent in English faced “insurmountable barriers to receiving assistance” during the pandemic.

The agency’s director, Sharon Hilliard, announced her retirement this fall following a crush of criticism from lawmakers and others.

“Who is responsible then?” Heath Flora, Republican vice chair of the Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, asked in an emailed statement. “The EDD Director resigned, the Governor is still the Governor, and now the LWDA Secretary might get a major promotion?”

Supporters counter that she spent less than two years as labor secretary and that she wasn’t running the department. David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat who has railed against EDD at legislative hearings, came to Su’s defense, saying she “has done everything she possibly can to fix the situation.” Chiu has known her since they attended Harvard Law School together.

And unions that have supported other contenders have praised her work.

“She has a super pro-worker record in California,” said Dan Mauer, who directs government affairs at Communication Workers of America, which backed Levin for the job. CWA “will be delighted to work with her.”

Stephanie Murray contributed to this report.