GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler is hoping to become Georgia’s first female senator elected in her own right after a bitter special election against Republican and Democratic opponents alike.
Loeffler, 50, is facing Democratic Rev. Raphael Warnock, 51, in a Jan. 5 runoff, a race that will determine Senate control in the next Congress.
The businesswoman and political neophyte emerged as the top Republican contender in the Nov. 3 “jungle” special election, elbowing out popular GOP Rep. Doug Collins in their 21-candidate field to finish second behind Warnock, a preacher.
Now, with the Senate majority on the line, Loeffler and her Republican allies are laser-focused on Warnock, blasting him as “a radical liberal.”
Loeffler, who’s estimated to be worth at least $800 million with husband Jeffrey Sprecher, was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in January to replace retired GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson. Isakson left the Senate on the last day of 2019 due to health concerns, and the runoff winner will serve the remaining two years of his term.
With a 100% pro-President Trump voting record, one of Loeffler’s pet issues in the Senate has been cracking down on technology conglomerates, including social media giants Facebook and Twitter. That’s work she’s touted on the campaign trail, along with economic growth and fair trade deals, as well as getting tougher on crime and illegal immigration.
To better relate to Georgia voters, she’s played up her childhood as the daughter of Illinois grain farmers who owned a trucking business and how she was the first in her family to go to college.
After earning her MBA, Loeffler moved to Atlanta in 2002 to work in investor relations for Intercontinental Exchange, a financial services provider. She married Sprecher, Intercontinental Exchange’s CEO, two years later. She quickly rose to become senior vice president before serving as CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary financial technology firm, in 2018.
But while portraying herself as an example of the American dream, Loeffler’s bid has been snagged by a number of snafus.
The former Hillary Clinton donor was accused of insider trading after she and Sprecher bought and sold almost $20 million worth of pandemic-vulnerable stock following a private Senate COVID-19 briefing in January. Her poll numbers recovered after the Justice Department closed its investigation into the allegations. She was also cleared by the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee of any wrongdoing.
Loeffler’s exoneration this summer coincided with George Floyd-inspired racial unrest around the country. As the Atlanta Dream WNBA team’s co-owner, she chided players for taking part in Black Lives Matter protests on their respective courts, boosting her popularity too.
The Loeffler-Warnock runoff will hinge on turnout. Although Republicans have traditionally outperformed Democrats in runoffs, both Loeffler and Georgia Sen. David Perdue, who’s competing in his own race, have supported Trump’s election challenges and bombarded Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with criticism. The GOP now fears that voters won’t go to the polls.
