(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Federal Communications Commission is drawing opposition from an unusual array of foes, including a police group, a Nebraska Democrat and former Republican aides working to stymie the president’s agenda.

Gigi Sohn, who would give Democrats a majority on the five-member commission and potentially revive net neutrality policies she favors, has yet to get a vote of the full Senate, almost six months after her selection by Biden. 

The long fight over Sohn has delayed possible new regulations for voice and broadband providers because the FCC remains split 2-to-2 between Republicans and Democrats, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a communications lawyer. The delay also is a product of an evenly split Senate, he said.

“The new usual is that everything is incredibly partisan,” Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in an interview. “Getting a nominee through is ever more difficult.”

Selections for the FCC normally don’t receive wide attention. Sohn, 60, a communications lawyer, is well known in Washington after more than two decades of advocacy there, and serving as counselor to the last Democratic FCC majority. She has described herself as “an advocate for universal and affordable access to open and democratic communications networks.”

Critics have found fodder in her trail of public comments including tweets critical of Fox News, and her service on boards including that of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which supports strong encryption.

Law enforcement groups support strong encryption but want technology companies to comply with subpoenas allowing investigators access to evidence, including the contents of communications. The Fraternal Order of Police said it discerned a “serious animus towards law enforcement officers and the rule of law” from Sohn’s retweets and likes on Twitter.

Sohn declined to comment on the criticism but a former FCC public safety chief in a Jan. 4 letter to the Senate panel considering her nomination said Sohn took “no position” on encryption policy while working at the FCC.

“On the contrary, she was extremely helpful in bringing tech-savvy professionals before the bureau to provide useful background on both sides of the issue,” Retired Navy Rear Admiral David Simpson said in the letter. “I believe her decisions will balance consumer, citizen and community interests with law enforcement and national security priorities.”

Two other former chiefs of public safety at the FCC also wrote to lawmakers in January backing Sohn.

The police group on March 11 wrote to nine Democratic senators asking them to oppose Sohn. Because the Senate is split 50-50, a nominee is expected to need all 50 Democratic votes to succeed. Any defection could kill Sohn’s nomination, leaving the White House to name a replacement -- and the FCC to languish further without a working majority. 

Sohn’s nomination received a party-line tie vote in committee. To succeed, she needs a series of floor votes in the Senate that have yet to be scheduled. The body is in recess this week.

Lawmakers receiving a letter from the police group included Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who each face re-election this year. State groups will settle on endorsements later this year, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police. The group also wrote to West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has become known for resisting White House initiatives.

Cortez Masto declined to comment when asked if she supports Sohn. Kelly and Manchin each said they would consider her nomination later. 

Other groups, too, are focusing on Sohn.

The American Accountability Foundation, run by staffers for former President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans, has called on Sohn’s nomination to be withdrawn. The group says it’s “working to ensure that leaders within the federal government reflect the values and concerns of the American people, not the liberal coastal elites and their woke allies in corporate America.”

In a tweet the group said blocking Biden nominees and policy is “the reason we get up every morning.”

One Country Project, led by two former Democratic U.S. senators -- Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota, and Joe Donnelly, of Indiana -- said it’s launching a six-figure ad campaign opposing Sohn. The group argues Sohn “is the wrong choice for the FCC and rural America.” Ads are to run in states including Arizona, Nevada and West Virginia, the group said.

Heitkamp in a blog post said Sohn would “shift attention toward her preferred constituencies in urban areas” when considering broadband expansion.

Heitkamp drew a rebuttal from Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks program at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

“Her group claims Gigi is anti rural while taking Gigi’s comments out of context!,” Mitchell said in a tweet. “Gigi wants to invest in rural America, has criticized programs that failed to do it.” 

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