Defying President Trump, Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, appointed Atlanta businesswoman Kelly Loeffler to finish the Senate term vacated by Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson.
Kemp on Wednesday picked Loeffler, a GOP donor and business owner, over Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, who Trump favored to succeed the ailing Isakson, 74.
Collins, 53, who represents Georgia’s 9th District since 2013, has been a top supporter of the president in the House Democrats’ ongoing impeachment investigation and will play a central role defending Trump during the Judiciary Committee’s public impeachment hearing on Wednesday.
Kemp, 56, is also a strong Trump supporter.
His decision to pick Loeffler likely represents the GOP’s growing concern that the party is losing suburban women voters, a phenomenon that has been growing in Georgia and other states over the past decade.
The House lost dozens of GOP seats in suburban districts in 2018, noted former GOP Rep. Jack Kingston, who represented Georgia’s 1st District from 1993 until 2015.
“Ms. Loeffler does bring a dimension to the table that we need,” Jack Kingston told the Washington Examiner. “That area where we did not do well in 2018, we will do well now. She will help fill that gap and address that need.”
Loeffler, Kingston said, might be a political outsider but she “brings something to the table,” with her business experience. She is a force in the Atlanta business community.”
Loeffler is chief executive officer of Bakkt, a bitcoin futures trading platform, and the co-owner of the WNBA team, Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler considered but ultimately declined GOP efforts to get her to run for Georgia’s other Senate seat in 2014.
Her selection by Kemp means she’ll have to run again in 2020 to finish Isakson’s term and then again in 2022 when Isakson’s term ends.
Isakson is retiring on Dec. 31 due to health reasons. Loeffler will be sworn into the Senate in January, which is the start of the second session of the 116th Congress.
Conservative groups and conservative pundits decried the decision by Kemp to bypass Collins.
They said Loeffler is not conservative enough, particularly on key Republican issues such as abortion.
“She sits on the board of a hospital in Atlanta that employs five abortionists and actually runs the largest training program for abortionists in Georgia,” Concerned Woman for America said in a statement. “She is also part-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream franchise. The WNBA has been an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood, even partnering with the pro-abortion organization in opposing President Trump’s pro-life policies.”
Conservative pundits Mark Levin and Sean Hannity also voiced their opposition.
Collins, on Tuesday, was mum about Loeffler’s pending appointment, telling the Washington Examiner, “I’ve said all I’m going to say about that. I’ve got the impeachment to focus on right now.”
[Opinion: Georgia’s GOP senator-to-be is a crappy conservative]
