ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp named Atlanta businesswoman Kelly Loeffler Wednesday to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., when the veteran politician leaves office at the end of this year.
Loeffler’s appointment had been widely leaked in the news media in recent days and drew intense criticism in conservative Republican circles at the national level, including right-wing media pundits not convinced of her conservative credentials.
President Donald Trump openly favored U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, who has been a staunch defender of the president in the current impeachment proceedings in the House.
Kemp and Loeffler spent much of Wednesday’s news conference at the state Capitol portraying her as a lifelong Republican who is pro-life, supports gun rights and backs the president’s determination to crack down on illegal immigration by building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Not every American woman is liberal,” Loeffler said. “Many of us are conservative and proud of it.”
Kemp compared Loeffler, who has never held elective office, as a political outsider in the mold of Trump and Georgia’s other U.S. senator, Republican David Perdue, who ran several Fortune 500 companies before being elected to Congress in 2014.
“We have seen first-hand the impact that political outsiders like Donald Trump and David Perdue have in Washington, D.C.,” the governor said. “It’s time we send them some reinforcements.”
Loeffler grew up on a farm in southern Illinois and worked her way through college and grad school waiting tables. Her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is CEO of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which owns the New York Stock Exchange, and she is CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange.
“I’m not a career politician,” Loeffler said. “I have spent the last 25 years building businesses, taking risks and creating jobs. I haven’t spent my life trying to get to Washington.”
Loeffler condemned the Democrat-led Impeachment process unfolding in the House as a “distraction” and a “sideshow” that is preventing Republicans and Democrats in Congress from working together to solve the nation’s challenges.
She also argued socialists have taken over the Democratic Party through the presidential candidacies of Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Loeffler said she will be a candidate next November to complete the final two years of Isakson’s unexpired term.
“As an outsider in Washington, I know I have to earn your support and trust,” she told an audience of Republican elected officials and GOP activists assembled inside the governor’s ceremonial office. “Through my votes and actions, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Isakson announced his retirement plans in September, citing health reasons.