WASHINGTON—Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has held up hundreds of military promotions, is asking his colleagues to support an effort to quickly confirm Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney as second-in-command to the U.S. Marine Corps after its top officer collapsed during a jog on Sunday and was taken to the hospital, according to a senior Senate aide.

Mahoney was nominated by the White House in July but had yet to be confirmed by the Senate along with hundreds of other senior officers’ promotions who remain frozen by Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, in a political battle over the Pentagon’s abortion policy.