President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to head the Small Business Administration.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our great economy,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site. “Kelly will bring her experience in business and Washington to reduce red tape and unleash opportunity for our small businesses to grow, innovate, and thrive.”

Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. She ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.

Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta businesswoman, is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.

Loeffler has been a staunch loyalist to Trump, backing his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose to Democrat Joe Biden and calling for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.

After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.

After Trump won a second term in the White House last month, Loeffler signed up to-chair the president-elect’s inauguration committee.

Trump had briefly considered tapping Loeffler to serve in his administration as secretary of agriculture but instead turned to Brooke Rollins, an aide during his first term in office. Loeffler’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.