U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., defended her background as a successful businesswoman during a campaign stop in Atlanta Tuesday to mark the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman who has poured $15 million of her own money into her U.S. Senate bid so far, has faced criticism from opponents over large attack ad buys and her use of a private jet on the campaign trail.
Speaking at the Penley Art Gallery in Buckhead Tuesday, Loeffler embraced her background as an example of American capitalistic success while stressing that she knows “what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck” after working her way through college and in the business world.
“I’ve been attacked for my success,” Loeffler said. “And I’m going to keep fighting against that because in this country, I’m fighting for every single American’s right and opportunity to live the American Dream.”
Flanked by paintings of historical figures and a replica 1957 Porsche Spyder, Loeffler described her upbringing in an Illinois farm family and waitressing in college before joining Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which now owns the New York Stock Exchange. Her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the company’s founder and CEO.
“Not only am I the true conservative in this race, but I know how to create jobs and economic opportunity that lifts all Americans up, that promotes equality in our country,” Loeffler said. “And on this 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, that message is more important than ever.”
Loeffler also hailed local community leadership work by Georgia women amid the anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification and noted she has fielded support from many conservative women during her campaign so far.
“We can no longer be a silent majority,” Loeffler said. “We need to speak out.”
Loeffler’s comments came as millions of Americans including more than 3.4 million people in Georgia have filed for unemployment benefits in recent months amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Loeffler and her Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, have opposed extending $600 weekly federal unemployment checks.
Loeffler has also faced broadsides from Collins’ campaign over her financial resources, which the four-term Republican congressman from Gainesville has sought to cast as an effort to buy her way to winning a Senate seat she was appointed to in January, following former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s retirement.
“Loeffler was picked because she was a wealthy self-funding moderate who could compete for more liberal suburban voters,” said Dan McLagan, a spokesman for Collins. “When Doug Collins got in the race, she had to pretend to be a conservative – to ‘out-Doug Doug’ as it were.”
Collins’ campaign most recently took issue with an ad from Loeffler that dinged Collins for voting in favor of a 1% infrastructure tax referendum while he was a state lawmaker in the General Assembly. His campaign has dismissed the ad as disingenuous.
The campaign pointed out Loeffler supported the tax referendum in a news article while International Exchange, where she was head of investor relations at the time, spent $100,000 in campaign contributions to back the referendum.
“This election may well be the biggest test of whether money can overwhelm truth in a statewide campaign,” McLagan said.
Loeffler is scheduled to hold a 14-county campaign tour starting next month with appearances by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Gov. Brian Kemp, who appointed her to hold Isakson’s seat until the special election on Nov. 3.
She will also be joined by Kemp’s wife, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, who heads up Loeffler’s “Women for Kelly” women-driven supporter group and who also spoke at Tuesday’s stop in Buckhead, along with state Rep. Jodi Lott, R-Evans.
Collins, meanwhile, is set for a swing through South Georgia next week alongside state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, following a stop in Fayetteville Tuesday evening for a meeting of the Greater Fayette Republican Women’s Club.
The race’s leading Democratic candidate, Rev. Raphael Warnock, has held virtual campaign appearances since last week with influential state Democratic leaders like former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and 7th Congressional District Democratic candidate Carolyn Bourdeaux, and is poised to stump via video feed later this week with Augusta, Macon and Spalding County Democrats and U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff.
Warnock, the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, has made voting rights a focal point of his campaign and praised the women of the suffrage movement in honor of the 19th Amendment’s ratification centennial on Tuesday.
“We still have a long road ahead of us,” Warnock said. “The wage gap for female entrepreneurs in Georgia is the largest of any state. But today, we celebrate and honor the women who have taken the first steps down that path toward equality and recommit ourselves to working even harder for change.”
This story has been update to revise the headline and to clarify Sen. Loeffler’s comments as well as provide additional comment from her speech.