Kelly Loeffler


Kelly Lynn Loeffler is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Georgia since 2020. A member of the Republican Party, Loeffler previously served as chief executive officer of Bakkt, a subsidiary of commodity and financial service provider Intercontinental Exchange, which is owned by her husband. She is also co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, of the Women's National Basketball Association.
On December 4, 2019, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp selected Loeffler as the successor to Senator Johnny Isakson, who announced his intention to resign at the end of 2019 for health reasons. She was sworn into office on January 6, 2020. Loeffler is running in the special Senate election to take place in late 2020.

Early life and career

Loeffler was born in Bloomington, Illinois, and raised on her family's corn and soybean farm in Stanford, Illinois. In 1988, she graduated from Olympia High School in Stanford.
In 1992, Loeffler graduated with a Bachelor of Science in marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign's Gies College of Business, where she was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. After college, she worked for Toyota as a District Account Manager. In 1999, Loeffler graduated with a Master of Business Administration in international finance and marketing from DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. She financed her graduate school tuition by mortgaging land inherited from her grandparents. After earning her MBA, Loeffler worked for Citibank, William Blair & Company, and the Crossroads Group.
In 2002, Loeffler joined Intercontinental Exchange, a commodity and financial service provider, in investor relations. After marrying the firm's CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, in 2004, a courtship Sprecher described as her biggest risk "because if it didn't work out, she'd be on the short end of the stick," she was eventually promoted to senior vice president of investor relations and corporate communications. In 2010, Loeffler bought a minority stake in the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association. In 2011, she and Mary Brock purchased the team from Kathy Betty. In 2018, Loeffler became the chief executive officer of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange.

U.S. Senate

Loeffler considered seeking the Republican nomination in the 2014 United States Senate election in Georgia but ultimately passed on the race because of Intercontinental Exchange's pending acquisition with the New York Stock Exchange.

Appointment

In November 2019, Loeffler applied to succeed incumbent Senator Johnny Isakson, who had announced his resignation from the United States Senate, effective December 31, for health reasons. She is running in the 2020 special election for the remainder of Isakson's term. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Loeffler was Governor Brian Kemp's choice for the seat, and on December 4 he announced that he would appoint her when the seat became vacant.
Loeffler was sworn into the Senate on January 6, 2020.

2020 Senate election

Loeffler is running to serve the remaining two years of Isakson's term. She plans to spend $20 million of her own money on her campaign. She is the first female senator in 97 years to represent Georgia in the Senate and first Republican woman to do so. Under Georgia's election law, all candidates for the seat will compete in a nonpartisan blanket primary. If no candidate wins over 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will participate in a runoff election in January. Among others, Loeffler faces U.S. Representative Doug Collins, a Republican who represents Georgia's 9th congressional district and gained attention as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. Loeffler's candidacy is backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate Republicans' campaign arm, as well as several senior Senate Republicans.

Tenure

;Committee assignments
Loeffler serves on the following committees:
;Caucuses
On March 19, 2020, the public release of federal financial disclosure documents showed that Loeffler and her husband, owner and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, Jeffrey Sprecher, had sold stock in companies vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic with an aggregate value of several million dollars. Loeffler has denied any wrongdoing, saying the trades were made by a third-party advisor and that she learned about them only after they occurred. The disclosures included that between January 24 and February 14, the couple sold between $1.275 and $3.1 million worth of stock in 27 companies, while buying stocks worth between $450,000 and $1 million, including in Citrix, a collaboration software company.
On March 20, 2020, the government watchdog group Common Cause filed complaints with the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee for possible violations of the STOCK Act and insider trading laws in the matter of stock sales by Loeffler and two other Republican senators, Richard Burr and James Inhofe, along with Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein. On April 1, it was reported that Loeffler and Sprecher had sold at least $18.7 million in Intercontinental Exchange stock before the 2020 stock market crash. On April 8, The Wall Street Journal reported that Loeffler and Sprecher would be selling individual stocks in an effort "to move beyond the distraction" caused by trades they made before and during the market decline caused by the novel coronavirus. On May 26, the Department of Justice announced that it had closed its inquiry into Loeffler.

Political involvement

Donations

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, have donated $3.2 million to political committees. Most of these donations have gone to the Republican Party, but some have gone to Democrats, including Representative David Scott, who received $10,200. Loeffler donated $750,000 to Restore Our Future, a Super PAC supporting former Governor Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee received $247,500 from Loeffler and her husband.
In May 2020, Sprecher gave $1 million to a Trump 2020 reelection super PAC. It was Sprecher's largest ever federal political donation.

Positions

Loeffler describes herself as a conservative Republican. She supports the reelection of President Donald Trump. As of July 2020, Loeffler has voted in line with President Trump's stated position on legislative issues 100% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Loeffler opposes abortion and has said she will vote for anti-abortion legislation. Although the Susan B. Anthony List initially opposed Loeffler's appointment, it endorsed her in the 2020 election. Loeffler has said she supports gun owners' Second Amendment rights and constructing a border wall along the Mexico–United States border. She supports the appointment of conservative judges to federal courts.
In a July 2020 letter to the WNBA, Loeffler stated her opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. She opposed the WNBA's plans to honor the movement. She said that honoring Black Lives Matter "undermines the potential of the sport and sends a message of exclusion." Her comments led some WNBA players to call for her removal from ownership.

Personal life

Loeffler is a Christian. In 2004, Loeffler married Intercontinental Exchange founder and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. They live in Tuxedo Park, Atlanta, in a $10.5 million, estate named Descante, bought in the most expensive residential real estate transaction ever recorded in Atlanta.