Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman, GOP activist and donor, and former U.S. Senator, who faced criticism for stock transactions just before the COVID-19 pandemic, was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as administrator for the Small Business Administration. Loeffler also serves as co-chair of Trump’s 2024 inaugural committee and contributed nearly $1M to Trump 47 Committee, Inc. Loeffler, who was a supporter of right-wing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Loeffler used to be the CEO of the crypto exchange Bakkt, which as of November 2024 was in talks to merge with Trump Media. Loeffler has “long campaigned to get cryptocurrencies into institutional investors,” a stance that aligns with Trump’s stated pro-crypto policies. Trump’s selection of Loeffler for this position, continues the pattern of Trump offering his donors and loyalists government positions following his election.

Immediately prior to her nomination as SBA administrator, Loeffler ran a group called Greater Georgia which she founded in 2021 after losing a Senate special election that went to a runoff. Loeffler has said she started the group to further trust in elections and turn out right leaning voters; however, Greater Georgia has been very involved in pushing restrictive election laws in the state and furthering the myth of rampant voter fraud. In an election integrity meeting in Georgia, Loeffler describes building Greater Georgia and modeling its ground game after Fair Fight, stating that Greater Georgia is “premised on three things: first of all registering voters, second of all, expanding and diversifying our party, and third, election integrity.” Loeffler voiced her support for Senate Bill 202 and stressed the importance of having “poll watchers, monitors” on election day. Greater Georgia and Loeffler have also supported other right wing causes including attacking Fulton County DA Fani Willis, calling for an “investigation” after DeKalb County accepted a grant from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life (while also supporting the ban of such grants), and filed a brief, “calling for a judge to dismiss the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Georgia over its controversial new election security law.” Greater Georgia has also gotten involved in culture war issues, with their latest federal tax form disclosing $25,000 to the far-right parents group Moms for Liberty. In addition to starting Greater Georgia, Loeffler started RallyRight, a technology firm that offers several features to Republican campaigns in order to give them “a leg up in the campaign tech space.”

Loeffler was appointed U.S. Senator from Georgia in December 2019 by Brian Kemp following the resignation of Senator Johnny Isaacson, over the objections of Trump who preferred a loyalist over a well connected donor for this position. After her appointment was announced, ethics experts stated her vast wealth and business interests posed a “minefield of issues” in regards to ethics compliance. Notably, a firm where Loeffler was an executive and her husband was CEO, Intercontinental Exchange, “spent more than $17 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies” between 2002 and the time she was nominated. As a “lucrative parting gift” Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which is the “parent company of the New York Stock Exchange,” transferred $9 million of “stock and other awards” from the company to Loeffler following her appointment in addition to a salary and bonus worth $3.5 million. While a member of the Senate, Forbes called Loeffler “in all likelihood, the richest person on Capitol Hill.”

In the Senate, Loeffler was a prominent Trump ally, stating in a campaign ad that she had a “100 percent Trump voting record.” Loeffler was also a key supporter of Trump’s false election claims in 2020 and notably committed to objecting to the election results when they were brought before the Senate on January 6th, 2021 (she ultimately reversed this decision following the attempted insurrection, which delayed the proceedings). Loeffler’s apparent ideological shift once she entered the Senate was surprising to some of her old colleagues at ICE, with some individuals saying her “political positions have caused some discomfort at the company.”

At the start of her term, Loeffler was appointed to the Senate Agriculture Committee, which drew concerns because it oversaw the agency that regulated her husband’s company. Loeffler, who was also a member of the Senate Health Committee, allegedly sold millions of dollars of stock over the course of several months following a January briefing her committee held on the coronavirus. Though the Senate Ethics Committee and Department of Justice investigated and dismissed the case against Loeffler, to counter the public criticism she and her husband would divest from individual stocks. Despite promising an audience in Georgia, as justification for why state officials should welcome an investigation into the Secretary of State’s office, that she would invite officials to “come in and look at anything you want, I got nothing to hide,” when Senator Loeffler allegedly failed to disclose a holding company that operates her private jet. Loeffler faced several ethics complaints from outside groups alleging she unlawfully solicited campaign donations during a television interview in the U.S. Capitol.

If confirmed, Loeffler could implement changes to the Small Business Administration that are in line with changes Project 2025 proposes for what it calls a “sprawling, unaccountable agency”, including undertaking “a research agenda that includes measuring the total cost that federal regulation imposes on small businesses”, removing religious exclusions from SBA loan eligibility to allow religious organizations to receive federal loans intended for small businesses, ending SBA direct lending, which is disaster lending, to instead explore privatizing disaster loans.