Latest Loeffler Setback: Pro-Trump Super PAC Backs Collins in Senate Bid

Endorsement Follows Weeks of Turmoil For Embattled Loeffler As She Struggles To Defend Well-Timed Pandemic Stock Trades

The pro-Trump super PAC Great America PAC gave the cold shoulder to unelected “political mega-donor” Senator Kelly Loeffler and threw its support behind her GOP challenger, Trump loyalist Congressman Doug Collins. The endorsement follows a scathing op-ed by the super PAC’s chairman in the Augusta Chronicle urging Georgia voters to “root out Loeffler’s corruption” by voting for Collins in November.

This is the second intra-party rebuff for Loeffler just this week. On Monday, Georgia Republican Congressman Drew Ferguson decided to “break ranks with Gov. Brian Kemp and his hand-picked” appointee to endorse Collins. Earlier this month, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell initially declined to say whether he still supports Loeffler and was later forced to clarify through a spokesperson. Spending from deep-pocketed Washington conservative groups has also dried up as the appointed senator struggles to defend her and her husband’s “unseemly” trades.

Despite her PR stunt last week to attempt to sweep her spiraling stock trade scandal under the rug, Loeffler is still “fighting for her political life” as it becomes clear her scandal is a “major political liability” for both herself and down ballot Republicans. Loeffler still refuses to explain the nature of the arrangement with her portfolio managers and whether she’s ever shared information with them or directed transactions. 

“Senator Loeffler took care of her stock portfolio in the middle of a pandemic and now she’s paying the price as Republicans are running for the hills from her toxic campaign,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Her attempts to divert attention from her stock trade scandal are too little, too late — the damage is done to her political career.”

Fox News: Pro-Trump super PAC backs Doug Collins’ Senate bid

By Tyler Olson

Key Points:

• A pro-Trump super PAC announced Wednesday that it is endorsing Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat as the congressman continues his controversial campaign to unseat incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., in a special election this November.

• The endorsement from Great America PAC, which boasts that it has “raised and spent $40 million in support of Donald Trump’s candidacy, presidency, and agenda,” follows an endorsement of Collins earlier this week by Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., who became the first member of the Georgia congressional delegation to back Collins’ Senate bid.

• Collins is seeking the seat vacated by retired Sen. Johnny Isakson at the end of 2019. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to temporarily fill the seat late last year despite reports that President Trump appealed to him directly to him to appoint Collins instead.

• The incumbent Loeffler has run into some bad press lately as she is one of four senators who has come under fire for dumping large amounts of stock in the weeks before the coronavirus pandemic caused a crash in the U.S. stock market.

• The race got off to an awkward start when Trump appeared to try to dissuade Collins from challenging Loeffler by floating Collins’ name to be his permanent Director of National Intelligence. Collins said he would not accept the position, and proceeded with his Senate run against the wishes of the GOP establishment — and apparently President Trump.

• But now as Loeffler struggles with bad publicity, Collins, who was one of Trump’s staunchest defenders during the impeachment saga, is receiving support from high-profile Trump backers like Great America PAC.

Read the full story here.

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