Samuel Brownback, governor of Kansas and a former U.S. senator, appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the nominee to be the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Topeka ? Gov. Sam Brownback was in Washington, D.C., Wednesday meeting with key senators in hopes of breaking an apparent logjam on his stalled nomination to be ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom in the Trump administration.

At the same time, aides brushed aside suggestions that Brownback might seek an appointment to another, similar position within the National Security Council staff, an appointment that would not require Senate confirmation.

Although Brownback’s nomination probably ranks low on the Senate’s priority list, it has enormous political consequences in Kansas. If confirmed, he would resign the office of governor, handing that job over to Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer at the start of an election year.

Colyer is seeking a full four-year term of his own in 2018, but he faces a crowded field of challengers for the GOP nomination, including Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who just held a high-profile fundraiser with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

Brownback was scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, who has the authority to bring Brownback’s nomination to the floor for an up or down vote.

McConnell’s spokesman, David Popp, declined to comment publicly on how that meeting went.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee divided sharply, 11-10, along party lines to advance his nomination to the full Senate amid Democratic objections to his record as governor on LGBT rights.

An aide to a member of the Kansas congressional delegation who asked not to be identified said the main issue with scheduling a vote on Brownback is the limited time the Senate has available for floor action before the end of the year and the large number of other items, including a spending bill and a Republican-backed tax package, that remain on the table.

The GOP tax bill has been criticized by some as being remarkably similar to the state tax policies that Brownback championed as governor of Kansas and that the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature substantially repealed this year. But during his visit in Washington, Brownback reportedly met with other GOP senators to boast about his tax policies.

“Sam Brownback is here in the Senate (outside GOP lunch) saying the Kansas tax plan worked, created jobs. ‘What we did actually worked,'” Wall Street Journal reporter Richard Rubin posted on Twitter.

Because Democrats are objecting, the aide said, the Senate would have to take a roll call vote instead of a voice vote, a process that in the U.S. Senate can consume a considerable amount of time.

That has led some to speculate that the Trump administration might offer Brownback another job that does not require Senate confirmation. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a press briefing Monday that she was not aware of any such discussion.

“I’m not aware of any specific announcement for that position at this time, but if one happens, we’ll certainly make sure you’re aware of it,” she said in response to a reporter’s question.

Brownback himself seemed to indicate that he is still pursuing the ambassador position, posting on Twitter Tuesday evening: “Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause. -SDB.”

Brownback’s spokeswoman, Rachel Whitten, also denied there had been any discussions about a different job.

“There have been no discussions of that nature that I’m aware of,” she said in an email Wednesday. “He is awaiting confirmation to the ambassador position by the Senate.”