President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House will bring a group of his prominent Georgia loyalists with him.
Several of Trump’s picks to Cabinet and other administration positions must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Other Georgians will see their political clout grow as Trump begins his second term.
All have one thing in common: They are each ardent Trump supporters who have proven their loyalty time and again.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Doug Collins
Veterans Affairs secretary
Trump announced shortly after his election that he will nominate the former Republican congressman from North Georgia to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. A Gainesville lawyer and chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Collins was one of Trump’s biggest defenders in the U.S. House during Democratic-led impeachment hearings. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020 but lost the Republican nomination to Kelly Loeffler, who had been appointed to the job months earlier. Collins spent 10 years as a Baptist preacher at a Gainesville church and in 2008 ministered to young soldiers during a tour in Iraq. He was a mainstay on the campaign trail for Trump in 2024.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Kelly Loeffler
Small Business Administration administrator
The former financial services executive is Trump’s pick to lead the Small Business Administration. A former high school basketball player, she was once part owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream franchise. Loeffler worked at several companies before joining Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. There she met her husband, the company’s CEO. Loeffler went on to lead a cryptocurrency subsidiary, Bakkt, until she was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 to fill Johnny Isakson’s seat. She served over a year and was defeated in a special election by Democrat Raphael Warnock in 2021. Since then, she started the Greater Georgia political organization and was one of Trump’s top donors in the 2024 cycle.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
David Perdue
Ambassador to China
Trump selected former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, an ex-Fortune 500 executive as his choice for U.S. ambassador to China. Perdue worked in Asia as part of his decades-long business career, which included stints leading sneaker giant Reebok and the Dollar General chain of discount stores. He entered politics at the urging of his cousin, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, and won an open U.S. Senate seat in 2014. But he failed to win a second term, defeated by Democrat Jon Ossoff in a runoff in 2021. Trump recruited Perdue to challenge Kemp as he ran for another term in 2022, but the governor trounced him in the Republican primary. Perdue spent the next two years largely out of the spotlight, though he returned several times to the campaign trail in 2024 to stump for Trump.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Bill White
Ambassador to Belgium
For many in Atlanta, Bill White’s name is synonymous with the divisive yearslong effort to split the wealthy Buckhead neighborhood from the rest of the city. After the secession push failed, White decamped with his husband to homes in the North Georgia mountains and West Palm Beach, Florida. But the New York City native may be moving yet again as Trump’s selection to be ambassador to Belgium. White is a longtime fundraiser for LGBTQ+ causes and veterans’ groups. He supported Democrats such as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama before shifting his allegiance to Trump. In New York, he was president of the Intrepid Museum and its sister organization, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Herschel Walker
Ambassador to Bahamas
The football great has known Trump since 1983 when Walker signed with the New Jersey Generals, the U.S. Football League franchise owned by the real estate developer. Now Trump has chosen Walker again, this time as his nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. As a star running back for the University of Georgia, Walker won the Heisman Trophy and led the Bulldogs to a national championship. He went on to a successful career in the NFL, playing for the Dallas Cowboys and other teams. In 2022, Walker jumped into politics, running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. He was defeated in a runoff by Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. In 2024, Walker earned his degree from UGA more than four decades after first enrolling.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Burt Jones
Georgia lieutenant governor
It’s hard to find a more loyal Trump supporter in Georgia than Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. As a state senator, he was one of the first state officials in Georgia to endorse Trump’s White House bid, and he was among a group of Republicans who gathered at the state Capitol in late 2020 to cast an electoral vote for Trump after Democrat Joe Biden won the state. He was then stripped of his committee chairmanship and scrutinized by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis until she was disqualified from investigating him. Jones has denied wrongdoing, and an independent investigator decided not to pursue criminal charges. He won statewide election in 2022 with Trump’s support and now he’s expected to run for governor in 2026. His loyalty to Trump could win him another coveted endorsement.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Brian Jack
U.S. Representative — District 3
He may be a rookie congressman, but Brian Jack’s ties to the incoming president run deeper than almost anyone else in Congress. The Peachtree City native helped Trump wrangle enough delegates in 2016 to win the party’s nomination and then joined Trump’s administration, eventually becoming director of Trump’s office of political affairs. He later helmed the political operation for then-U. S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after Biden won office, then rejoined Trump during his comeback bid. He won a seat in Congress last year with Trump’s endorsement.
Brandon Phillips
Credit: Courtesy of Brandon Phillips
Credit: Courtesy of Brandon Phillips
Political operative
Before he was hired as a top aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Brandon Phillips was a state director for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Phillips stepped down after several of his past run-ins with the law resurfaced, but he remained a key piece of Trump’s Georgia network. After helping Collins defeat a Trump-backed rival for an open northeast Georgia U.S. House seat, Phillips helped position Collins as one of Trump’s most prominent allies in Congress. A savvy operative with a fiery persona, expect Phillips to stay smack in the middle of Trump-related developments in Georgia.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Josh McKoon
Georgia GOP chairman
Once a crusading state senator unafraid to unnerve his party’s establishment, McKoon made his name championing controversial “religious liberty” legislation and pushing for more stringent ethics laws. At odds with some colleagues, McKoon waged an unsuccessful bid for secretary of state in 2018. But he reemerged as a key political player in 2023 by winning a three-way race to lead the state GOP on the promise of making the organization relevant again. He worked to restore the party’s ties with Kemp and orchestrated the ouster of a rogue vice-chair. He also closely oriented the Georgia GOP with MAGA forces. Under his watch, the party helped pay legal bills for officials charged with election interference, promoted voting changes proposed by pro-Trump elections officials and sought to banish former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan from the party after he opposed Trump’s comeback. Now McKoon, who Trump routinely singled out for praise at campaign events, could be in line for a national GOP role down the line.
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Marjorie Taylor Greene
U.S. Representative — District 14
Not many lawmakers are known simply by their initials, but “MTG” is a bona fide national figure. Loved or reviled by legions of voters, Greene won an outsider campaign for a northwest Georgia seat in 2020 after pushing wild conspiracy theories, and was stripped of committee assignments shortly after taking office for her history of offensive comments. But her many controversies helped her build a giant platform, and her allegiance to Trump and the GOP’s razor-thin margin in the House helped build her clout. Safely ensconced in a deep-red district — she handily beat a Democrat in 2022 who raised more than $16 million — Greene often campaigns for Trump and his causes around the nation. She once openly jockeyed for a Cabinet post, but now says her goal is to help Trump implement his agenda as the leader of a new cost-cutting House subcommittee.
