Atlanta Dream owner and Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler has been in the news a lot lately – and not for the most flattering of reasons.
With the news media engulfed in the coronavirus story, reports surfaced that she and others in Washington, D.C. (including North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, fellow Peach State senator David Perdue and Kentucky representative James Comer) privately engaged in stock deals while publicly assuring the public that the Covid-19 problem was not really a problem.
This has earned Loeffler lots of criticism both inside the Beltway and within the WNBA community – a community that began giving her more of a second look after name began being floated as a possible replacement for Johnny Isaskson, who stepped down from his post for health reasons.
Regardless, Loeffler still has her backers – one of them being Angel McCoughtry, who played with the Dream for her entire career until this year when she signed with the Las Vegas Aces in free agency.
My quote to the papers on Kelly Leoffler. pic.twitter.com/3swWfE7x3Z
— Angel McCoughtry (@angel_35) April 2, 2020
That tweet, as of this writing, received over 150 replies and only 73 likes – a social media phenomenon known as “the ratio.”
McCoughtry then issued a second tweet – one that was a lot better received by those that noticed.
Dear Twitter Family pic.twitter.com/ayV13H4OIq
— Angel McCoughtry (@angel_35) April 3, 2020
As for Loeffler’s reelection aspirations….
Georgia Senate Primary:
Collins (R) 34%
Lieberman (D) 18%
Loeffler (R) 14%
Warnock (D) 13%
Tarver (D) 5%@bgconnectGOP/@CollinsforGA
Internal Poll 3/24https://t.co/cuZubCPNAs #GAsen— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) April 1, 2020
It is a clear trend that Loeffler faces an uphill battle for reelection with more Georgia Republicans favoring Doug Collins clearly favoring the representative from the Georgia ninth congressional district over the Dream’s co-owner.
She was first appointed by Georgia governor Brian Kemp and had been involved in politics prior to – including donating to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney. Romney lost the 2012 election to Barack Obama but won Georgia’s electoral votes.
Loeffler was much maligned even in Republican circles for her WNBA connections – including those to Planned Parenthood (that teams such as the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty have shown support for) and to Stacey Abrams (who narrowly lost the 2018 election for Georgia governor to Kemp and became part of the WNBPA’s advisory board).
