Loeffler tests negative for virus after testing positive on Friday, campaign says
A Loeffler spokesman says the Georgia senator 'will continue to self-isolate and be retested again.'
Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler tested negative for coronavirus after a previous positive test on Friday and got an inconclusive test result the following day.
“Out of an abundance of caution, she will continue to self-isolate and be retested again to hopefully receive consecutive negative test results,” spokesman Stephen Lawson said in a statement Sunday. “We will share those results as they are made available.”
Loeffler is in the center of a battle to be officially elected to her Senate seat after a contentious campaign against Republican challenger Doug Collins. She will face off against Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in January.
Her Republican colleague, Sen. David Perdue, will face Democrat Jon Ossoff.
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The two Georgia Senate seats will determine which political party will control the Senate throughout the Biden administration.
On Friday, Loeffler was tested for COVID-19, and her results came back negative. She joined Vice President Mike Pence on a campaign bus most of that day as the two made their cases for GOP votes across the state. Loeffler wore a mask at some events.
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Loeffler was appointed to her Senate seat by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last year after Sen. Johnny Isakson retired for health reasons. The businesswoman is a part-owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team and made headlines when she wrote a scathing rebuke of players taking activist roles to decry racist killings.
“I adamantly oppose the Black Lives Matter political movement, which has advocated for the defunding of police, called for the removal of Jesus from churches and the disruption of the nuclear family structure, harbored anti-Semitic views, and promoted violence and destruction across the country,” she wrote to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in July.
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League players called for Loeffler to sell her stake; she has refused.
Before her appointment, Loeffler had no political experience. She has described herself as, “pro-Second Amendment, pro-military, pro-Trump, and pro-wall.”
She came under fire earlier this year after she sold $20 million in stock related to the hotel and hospitality industry after attending a coronavirus briefing in April. She was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.
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