by Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Wednesday as director of the federal Small Business Administration, the Associated Press reported.
The 52-46 vote will put Loeffler in charge of an agency that oversees federal loans and grants to small businesses and provides counseling to entrepreneurs trying to start one.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed the wealthy Atlanta businesswoman to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. Loeffler ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
A staunch loyalist to President Donald Trump, Loeffler backed his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose his bid for a second consecutive term to Democrat Joe Biden. At the time she joined a call for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
Loeffler becomes the second Georgian to join Trump’s second term Cabinet. The Senate recently confirmed former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, to head the Veterans Administration. Another Georgian, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, is headed overseas to become U.S. ambassador to China.
