by Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump is turning to Georgia again in his pick to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eight years after choosing former Gov. Sonny Perdue as secretary of agriculture, Trump is expected to nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to the post, multiple media outlets reported Friday.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. She ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta businesswoman, 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 women’s pro basketball team the Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler has been a staunch loyalist to Trump, backing his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results that saw Trump lose to Democrat Joe Biden and calling for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger at that time amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud in Georgia.
After the dust settled from the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
After Trump turned the tables on the Democrats this month to win a second term in the White House, Loeffler signed on as co-chair of the president-elect’s inauguration committee.
While Loeffler’s business career has not touched on agriculture, she grew up on a farm in southern Illinois. Her nomination will be subject to confirmation by her former colleagues in the Senate.
