Update: President-elect Donald Trump has now announced that he will nominate Brooke Rollins, who runs the America First Policy Institute, to be his Secretary of Agriculture. On Friday, multiple sources reported that Trump intended to name former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler that evening.  That announcement never came.

By Saturday, media reports indicated Trump now intends to nominate Rollins, who hails from Texas. Late this afternoon, the Trump campaign has confirmed this. Details to come.

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Previous article regarding the expected Loeffler announcement:

According to multiple reports, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler for Secretary of Agriculture. She currently serves as co-chair for Trump’s inaugural committee.

Loeffler was appointed to the Senate by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in 2019 to fill the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson. During her one-year tenure, she was a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Nationally, Loeffler is probably best known for losing a tight 2021 special election runoff to Democrat Rafael Warnock. That contest was one of two Georgia Seante races Democrats won to take control of the Senate weeks before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.

Loeffler is a vocal Trump supporter. Her social media posts  are devoted almost exclusively to supporting the President-elect. During her Senate campaign, Loeffler touted her pro-Trump voting record and proclaimed herself “America’s most conservative Senator.” More recently,  Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, donated nearly $5 million to Trump’s reelection campaign.

Sprecher is the founder of Intercontinental Exchange, an international financial services company that owns the New York Stock Exchange.

Agriculture Impact

Little is known about Loeffler’s agriculture policy positions. During her time in the Senate, she was not involved with any significant ag legislation.

According to her official biography, Loeffler grew up on an Illinois family farm and was a member of the local 4-H Club. She says she worked on her family’s soybean fields and cattle feedlots. Loeffler earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree from DePaul University. After graduation, she worked at Toyota, Citigroup and William Blair.

Before joining the Senate, Loeffler served as CEO of the financial services firm Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange. Loeffler also co-owned the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream from 2010 to 2021. She sold her stake in the team after coming under fire for criticizing the league’s racial justice initiatives.