Nippon Steel has vowed to keep U.S. Steel American-led if its acquisition of the storied Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, company is successful.

In a statement, the Japanese steelmaker promised that the majority of the board of directors and all members of the core senior management team at U.S. Steel would be U.S. citizens post-acquisition.

“The governance policy announced today has been developed to ensure the benefits of the transaction, while also maintaining U.S. Steel as an iconic American company,” Nippon Steel said in a statement.

In April, U.S. Steel shareholders approved Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion, $55-a-share, acquisition.

Since then, the transaction has become a major issue in the 2024 U.S presidential election, where Pennsylvania is a swing state and protecting U.S. jobs is central to the platforms of both candidates.

Vice President Kamala Harris said during a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania on Monday that the company should continue to be domestically owned, echoing earlier comments by President Joe Biden.

“U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated, and I will always have the backs of America’s steelworkers,” Harris said.

Former President Donald Trump has also vowed to block the deal.

Nippon Steel’s bid for the U.S steelmaker has met resistance across the political spectrum and has been cast as a national security issue.

Pennsylvania's Sen. John Fetterman said last year that he was “committed to doing anything I can do, using my platform and my position, to block this foreign sale.”

“Steel is always about security — both our national security and the economic security of our steel communities,” Fetterman said, calling the deal “outrageous.”

The United Steelworkers (USW), a labor union, has opposed the deal over job security concerns, although Nippon Steel has promised that there would be no job cuts.

Under the terms of the transaction, U.S. Steel’s headquarters will remain in Pennsylvania. It will continue to be a U.S. company and will be owned by Nippon Steel North America, a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Japan.

U.S. Steel supplied steel for iconic bridges and towers across the country and played a critical role in U.S. efforts during World War II. It was the first billion-dollar corporation in American history, but its fortunes have waned in recent years, and it put itself up for sale in August 2023.

"The backbone of America has a steel spine," Biden said in April, addressing steelworkers.

In December 2023, in a White House statement, the Biden administration said the deal would be closely scrutinized.

“The purchase of this iconic American-owned company by a foreign entity — even one from a close ally — appears to deserve serious scrutiny in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability,” the statement said.

Cleveland, Ohio’s Cleveland-Cliffs earlier offered $7 billion for U.S. Steel and said that its offer is better than Nippon Steel’s. But the Japanese company continued to fight. In August, it raised its full-year profit forecast in anticipation the deal would succeed.

“Nippon Steel is confident that the transaction will revitalize the American steel rust belt, benefit American workers, local communities, and national security in a way no other alternative can,” the company’s latest statement said.

“U.S. Steel and the entire American steel industry will be on much stronger footing because of Nippon Steel's investment in U. S. Steel — an investment that Nippon Steel is the only willing and able party to make. Nippon Steel believes that a fair and objective regulatory review process will support this outcome, and looks forward to closing the transaction as soon as possible.”