President Joe Biden is expected to withdraw his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after running into hesitation from key Democratic senators.

David Chipman, a former ATF agent and policy advisor to gun-control groups, was universally opposed by Republicans and Second Amendment advocates.

The collapse of Chipman’s nomination comes after key moderate Democratic senators expressed hesitancy at supporting his confirmation. Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia signaled that they were noncommittal on supporting Chipman’s appointment.

Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine who mostly votes with Democrats, told the White House and Democratic leadership that he could not support Chipman over previous public statements that angered gun owners, according to The New York Times.

The White House has not officially announced its withdrawal of Chipman’s nomination.

Losing even one Democrat vote would essentially doom Chipman's nomination. If confirmed, he would have been the first Senate-confirmed director to lead the ATF since Byron Todd Jones, who retired from the agency in 2015. Since the ATF director became a Senate-confirmed position in 2006, Second Amendment lobbyists such as the National Rifle Association have effectively exercised a near-veto on nominees from administrations in both parties.

According to the Times, Chipman maintained the support of the White House through August. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at the time blamed Republicans for their resistance to confirming Chipman and White House officials continue to lay the blame on the GOP over hesitant Democrats.

Republicans and the NRA cheered reports that Biden had withdrawn Chipman’s nomination.

“David Chipman is an erratic, anti-gun radical who planned to outlaw nearly every single sporting rifle in America. He is wholly unfit to run the ATF, and I’m glad to see President Biden has withdrawn his nomination,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over the ATF.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Chipman’s withdrawal a “win” for Second Amendment advocates. He called it “absurd that a vocal opponent of Americans' constitutional rights was ever picked to run ATF.”

The NRA credited its members for pressuring senators to oppose Chipman and said in a statement that it was celebrating a "major victory" for gun owners. It said that defeating Chipman's nomination has been a "top priority" for the NRA and launched an aggressive blitz of spending and lobbying to achieve this.

The Biden administration has announced initiatives to tackle rising violence in U.S. cities with a focus on cutting down gun violence. These efforts have included forming Justice Department-led taskforces to tackle firearm trafficking in conjunction with local law enforcement, closing loopholes and removing liability protections for gun manufacturers.

After news broke that Chipman’s nomination was being withdrawn, USA Today reported that supporters of gun control were already expressing disappointment with Democratic senators and the White House.

Igor Volsky, founder and executive director of Guns Down America, called the move "a significant setback for the Biden administration’s efforts to fight rising gun violence and illicit firearm trafficking." Gun control advocate Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, said he was "truly upset" by the news and singled out King for criticism.

A Twitter posting from Guttenberg read: "We have weak people serving the Senate such as @SenAngusKing who chose to listen to 'regulated industry. Sadly the White House failed to put up a fight on this."

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