Jason Hopkins on November 29, 2019
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to appoint financial executive Kelly Loeffler to the U.S. Senate, replacing ailing GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson.
Kemp is expected to announce Loeffler sometime next week, according to several senior GOP officials who spoke with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A source familiar with Kemp’s deliberations also told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the governor is expected to announce his decision in the coming days.
The announcement would mark the end of months-long backroom lobbying by applicants hoping to become the state’s next U.S. senator.
Isakson, who has served in the Senate since 2005, announced in late August that he would be stepping down from his seat at the end of the year, concluding that his health challenges were “taking their toll” and preventing him from properly serving in Congress. The three-term Republican senator from Georgia announced his Parkinson’s diagnosis before his 2016 reelection, but said at the time the disease would not affect his ability to work.
Upon Isakson’s announcement in August, Kemp said he would be begin accepting applications from those willing and qualified to serve the remainder of Isakson’s term before running for election in the 2020 cycle. Hundreds of individuals, including many people who never held elected office, applied for the job. After several months, Kemp came closer to settling on Loeffler, a financial executive with deep ties to the Georgia business community.
Loeffler co-owns Georgia’s WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream, and is the chief executive of Bakkt, which is a subsidiary of the Georgia-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. She is married to the Intercontinental Exchange’s founder and CEO, Jeff Sprecher. Together, the two have dropped considerable donations to the Republican National Committee in recent time.
Kemp is reportedly behind Loeffler because he believes her candidacy will attract female voters, a constituency that has hedged away from the GOP in the state since the rise of President Donald Trump. However, more hardline conservatives have expressed trepidation over Loeffler, pointing to her past contributions to Democratic candidates and that she has never run for office before, drawing questions over whether she is prepared to mount what could be a tough 2020 campaign.
The president has pressured Kemp to instead appoint GOP Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, a staunch conservative who has stood strongly behind the administration. The governor organized a meeting with Loeffler and Trump Sunday in a bid to assuage the president’s concerns. However, the meeting reportedly did not go over well, as Trump was still not convinced Loeffler’s appointment was a good decision.
Kemp, for his part, has adamantly pushed back against the idea that Loeffler is not sufficiently conservative enough.
“I stand with hardworking Georgians and [Trump]. The idea that I would appoint someone to the U.S. Senate that is NOT pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-freedom, and 100% supportive of our President (and his plan to Keep America Great) is ridiculous,” Kemp tweeted Wednesday. “The attacks and games are absolutely absurd. Frankly, I could care less what the political establishment thinks. Happy Thanksgiving! More information after the holiday!”
In her application for the position, Loeffler said she would “stand with President Trump” and work to “Keep America Great,” invoking Trump’s 2020 campaign slogan.
A spokesperson for Kemp’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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He donated to both parties if he thought an honest person was running.
He won't, you know!
I'll be out of FB jail mid December, but the ''jail'' time allowed me to look up more stuff. Some I know will get me blocked from FB, so it gets posted to MeWe or goes in my file to be posted elsewhere later. Some WILL get posted to FB!!
Susan dont't be blindly sexist! If Doug's the better CONSERVATIVE then he needs to be in there instead of a female RINO. If women are too stupid to vote for a better candidate regardless of sex or race then their blindness will cost us all. I personally do NOT blindly vote for guys. I pick the better person running.
You have company in that same rowboat. True Americans will speak their minds and not be afraid of the political commissars in DC or the local party political officers. The founding fathers pledged their life and fortunes for this country. Anyone who has served in the service also does. For the Democrat elite, these pledges have no meaning (even though they mouth the words of such an oath). They want you to be a tovarishch. You recall the serpent that sold Eve on the apple? These types would have you buy the bushel, sight unseen. Sorry elites, but Eleanor, I, and the majority of Americans are not going to buy your snake oil. Why don't you Dumocrats find some 'flexibility' after this upcoming election and relate this to Vladimir?
Trump had donated tons of money to democrats. I agree that Collins would be a good, safe choice, but I don't think we know enough about her to shut it down.
Loeffler is not a businesswoman. Her husband put her in jobs in his business. She does the same business as a street walker.
Ruth has been diagnosed. She has terminal malignant pancreatic cancer. Paliative care includes a bile duct stent and lots of morphine. Her last trip to the vet was for morphine side effects. Multiple internal organ failures are in her near future.
collins is a future star. APPOINT COLLINS for a win win.
If she was as smart as some people think she is, she would have announced her retirement to be effective the day after now [Thank God] Ex-President Obama was sworn in in 2009. That would have given her a quarter century on the bench and she would have been 75 at the time. At the time, Democrats had a majority in the House of Representatives, the White House, and with the Independents who always caucus with the Democrats a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Obama could have nominated whichever flaming liberal he wanted to and they would have been confirmed.