Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Lynn Loeffler (, ; born November 27, 1970) is an American businesswoman and politician who served as a United States senator from Georgia from 2020 to 2021.

Loeffler was chief executive officer (CEO) of Bakkt, a subsidiary of commodity and financial service provider Intercontinental Exchange, of which her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is CEO.

She is a former co-owner of the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Loeffler is a member of the Republican Party.

In 1988, she graduated from Olympia High School in Stanford, where she was in the marching band, ran cross-country and track, and played varsity basketball.

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 (MBA) 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, she joined Intercontinental Exchange, a commodity and financial service provider, in investor relations.

She married the firm's CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, in 2004.

Loeffler 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 (WNBA).

In 2011, she and Mary Brock bought the team from Kathy Betty.

Loeffler took an active role in the team, arranging her travel schedule to attend all games and often meeting with head coach Michael Cooper during halftime to analyze the first half of the game.

In February 2021, Loeffler sold her stake in the team.

When Loeffler left Intercontinental Exchange to join the Senate, the company awarded her over $9 million of financial assets.

A spokesperson for Loeffler said Loeffler "left millions in equity compensation behind" by joining the Senate.

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 Sprecher.

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 of the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2018, she became the chief executive officer (CEO) of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange.

Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, appointed Loeffler to the U.S. Senate in December 2019 after Senator Johnny Isakson resigned for health reasons.

Loeffler ran in the 2020 Georgia U.S. Senate special election, seeking to hold the Senate seat until January 3, 2023.

She finished second in the November 3 election, advancing to a runoff with Democrat Raphael Warnock held on January 5, 2021.

She lost the runoff election to Warnock.

That same day, her fellow Georgia senator, David Perdue, also lost his bid for re-election.

When Perdue's term ended on January 3, 2021, and he was succeeded by Jon Ossoff, Loeffler ascended to be the senior senator from Georgia, a position she held for just under three weeks, until Warnock was sworn in.

Loeffler aligned with President Donald Trump, touting her "100 percent Trump voting record" during the campaign.

According to OpenSecrets, as of December 2019, Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, had donated $3.2 million to political committees.

Ninety-seven percent of these donations went to Republicans, and three percent to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Debbie Stabenow, and Georgia Congressman David Scott (GA–13), who received $10,200.

On August 28, 2019, sitting Georgia senator Johnny Isakson announced that he would resign at the end of the year, citing health reasons.

On December 4, 2019, in accordance with Georgia law, Governor Kemp appointed Loeffler to fill Isakson's unexpired term until the next regularly scheduled statewide election in November 2020.

After the November 2020 election, Loeffler and Perdue claimed without evidence that there had been unspecified failures in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and called for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who rejected the accusations.

She later supported a lawsuit by Trump allies seeking to overturn the election results, and also announced her intention to object to the certification of the Electoral College results in Congress.

After the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Loeffler announced that she would withdraw her objection to the certification of the electoral votes and later voted to certify.

Loeffler was born in Bloomington, Illinois, to Don and Lynda (née Munsell) Loeffler, and raised on her family's corn and soybean farm in Stanford, Illinois.

She has a brother, Brian.

In May 2020, Loeffler's husband gave $1 million to a Trump 2020 reelection super PAC, his largest federal political donation to date.