Donald Trump is set to offer GOP donor and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) the role of Agriculture Secretary, CNN reports.
The offer has not yet been finalized, but is currently in the works, according to two sources. Trump and Loeffler are meeting at Mar-a-Lago Friday afternoon.
Her last turn in government came after Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) announced his resignation in 2019. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) selected Loeffler to be his replacement, a decision that Trump was reportedly unhappy with.
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In fact, Trump had another contender in mind, then-Rep. Doug Collins, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time. Kemp overrode his concerns and appointed Loeffler anyway; Collins is now Trump’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Loeffler’s year in the Senate was marked by turmoil. Collins opted to run against her in the 2020 all-party special election, attacking her from the right, especially around her role as co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, which had some associations with liberal causes.
After the WNBA backed the Black Lives Matter movement during the racial justice protests of 2020, Loeffler came out against BLM.
“There is no room for racism in this country. We cannot have it,” Loeffler said during a campaign stop. “But there is an organization, different from the saying, an organization called Black Lives Matter founded on Marxist principles. Marxism supports socialism.”
Collins and Loeffler split the Republican vote in the November election, with Loeffler qualifying for the runoff. In that final contest, now-Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) won by 2 percentage points, booting her out of her Senate seat.
But Loeffler has stayed in Trump’s good graces. She helped raise millions of dollars for the president-elect’s 2024 campaign, hosting a debate watch party for him over the summer that other MAGA World stars attended.
She was back in the news just days ago, publicly backing former Rep. Matt Gaetz, her former critic, for attorney general before he withdrew from consideration.
She is also a co-chair of Trump’s second inaugural committee.
