Former Senator and Business Leader Kelly Loeffler

President-elect Trump is expected to offer former Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) the position of Secretary of Agriculture, according to a CNN report.

Loeffler, who turns 54 next week, is the co-chair of Trump’s inauguration committee. Trump was scheduled to meet with Loeffler Friday afternoon at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Loeffler represented Georgia in the Senate from 2020 to 2021. She was appointed to the seat in 2019 after the retirement of former Sen. Johnny Isakson. In 2021, Loeffler lost her seat in a special election to current Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat.

Loeffler was present on the campaign trail for Trump and spent time during the summer as an active fundraiser for his campaign. She was host of a debate watch party over the summer which, CNN reported, included fellow Trump cabinet nominees Sen. Marco Rubio (Secretary of State) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (U.N. Ambassador). 

As the potential secretary, Loeffler would be tasked with carrying out Trump’s agriculture policy agenda, and may work closely with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has stated his opposition to pesticides and said in an interview before the election that Trump promised him control over HHS and USDA. 

Prior to entering the world of politics, Loeffler was a business executive and the owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. Loeffler sold her stake in the team in 2021.

Background

Loeffler was raised as the fourth generation on her family’s corn and soybean farm in Stanford, Illinois, about 8 miles west of Bloomington. Loeffler Farms is run today by Brian Loeffler, Kelly’s younger brother, and his family, according to the farm’s website. 

On the farm, Loeffler “learned the importance of faith, family, and hard work,” she said in a 2020 Georgia federal candidate questionnaire. “I grew up working in the fields, then waitressed my way through school. I was the first in my family to graduate from college.” 

Loeffler obtained a BS in marketing from the University of Illinois and an MBA at DePaul University. “And after college, I worked my way up – living paycheck to paycheck – until I got my foot in the door in business.” 

After almost three decades in the automotive and financial service industries, Loeffler advanced to an executive position at Intercontinental Exchange, according to her website. Intercontinental Exchange grew from a small startup to a Fortune 500 company, and then Loeffler went on to launch Bakkt as its founding CEO. Bakkt is a financial services company that specializes in cryptocurrency. 

Until her senate appointment in 2019, Loeffler had not held any public office. “I have spent my life in the private sector as a businesswoman and job creator,” she said in the 2020 questionnaire.

Stance on Farm Bill 

The farm bill is “the single most important piece of agricultural legislation regularly considered in Congress,” Loeffler said in the 2020 questionnaire. 

At that time, she said the farm bill’s top priorities should be twofold: “First, we need to ensure that our farmers have an appropriate safety net to protect against the uncertainties of the industry. Second, we need to bolster support for farmers given the unfavorable economic conditions that the industry faces today.”

Stance on Trade

Loeffler praised the previous Trump administration’s trade negotiations and strong enforcement mechanisms with China and Japan. “These trade deals are only as strong as their enforceability and our consequences for defection,” she added in the 2020 questionnaire.

As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee at that time, Loeffler said, “I will continue to use my power to hold China and others accountable on these trade deals. The bottom line is, foreign governments – especially the Communist Party of China – will do anything to grow its economy at the expense of the American worker and farmer. We cannot take compliance at face value.”

Trump has said he would place a 60% tariff on goods from China. China is the U.S.’s leading agricultural export market.

Ag Policy and Activity During Senate Tenure 

In May 2020, Loeffler removed herself from a role in the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade, after she came under scrutiny for stock trades made in February 2020 after “receiving a classified briefing on the coronavirus,” per a report from Politico. Loeffler remained on the Senate Agriculture Committee and was later cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee and Department of Justice.

Loeffler sponsored the American Farmers, Food Banks, and Families Act of 2020 (S.3970), the goal of which was to connect U.S. farmers with food banks and other food distributors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill was introduced but not enacted.

That same year, Loeffler participated in announcing a $323,834 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to the University of Georgia (UGA) for research to improve crop protection and pest management. She was quoted as saying, “Farmers are the backbone of Georgia and this nation, and they deserve all the help and resources they can get to ensure their crops are protected … I applaud USDA for awarding UGA with this grant, which will bolster its premier agriculture research program – which is already a leader in the nation – and help safeguard Georgia crops from the diamondback moth and other threats for years to come.”

Industry Praise

Loeffler received praise from Sonny Perdue, who served as the Secretary of Agriculture during Trump’s first administration, after she was sworn in to the U.S. Senate and named to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

“As the daughter of an active farming family, Kelly understands the needs of the agriculture community and will be able to bring this knowledge and experience to her work in the Senate,” Perdue said in 2020. “I look forward to working together on ways we can best serve our farmers and ranchers across the country and in our home state of Georgia.”