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For Senator Kelly Loeffler, Impeachment Is an Early Proving Ground

The Georgia Republican was sworn in as the Senate’s newest member just in time to sit for the impeachment trial against President Trump.

Senator Kelly Loeffler has raced to broadcast her support for the president in the impeachment fight.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As her colleagues fretted privately on Monday over revelations from John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser whose forthcoming book pokes holes in President Trump’s impeachment defense, the newest Republican member of the United States Senate rushed to publicly side with Mr. Trump.

Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who is all of a month into her job, lashed out at one of her fellow Republicans, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, for pressing to subpoena Mr. Bolton, accusing her colleague of wanting to “appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame.”

“The circus is over,” she added in a post on the president’s favorite platform, Twitter. “It’s time to move on.”

The attack on Mr. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee whom Mr. Trump has berated as a “pompous ‘ass’” and a “fool,” reflected how Ms. Loeffler, who arrived on Capitol Hill just in time for the third Senate presidential impeachment trial in history, is managing her new role as she faces intense political headwinds of her own.

In the courtly Senate, novice members typically take their time before jumping into the spotlight, keeping to themselves as they set up their offices and learn the archaic rules of the institution. But Ms. Loeffler, who had never held public office when she was appointed last year to serve out the term of Senator Johnny Isakson, is breaking convention as she works to use the extraordinary circumstances of the impeachment battle to solidify her place in a party where loyalty to Mr. Trump is the key to survival.

Hours after she tweeted on Monday, associates close to Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and a close ally of Mr. Trump’s, told reporters he would challenge her for her seat in November. His candidacy, which had long been rumored, helped to explain why Ms. Loeffler, who was appointed over Mr. Trump’s explicit objections — he preferred Mr. Collins for the job — raced to broadcast her support for the president in the impeachment fight.

“Republican primaries these days have become contests about who loves President Trump more,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican political consultant. “Mr. Collins has been one of the president’s most vociferous defenders. That puts Senator Loeffler in a position of vocally demonstrating that she has the president’s back in the impeachment debate.”

Sworn in days after Mr. Trump authorized the drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s top security commander, Ms. Loeffler began work as the country found itself on the edge of war and the brink of the historic impeachment trial.

“It’s going to be a total immersion,” said Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia. “She’s not only got to become a full-fledged voting senator here with an office here and an office in the state, she’s got to put a campaign together.”

Her orientation to the Senate has mostly consisted of long afternoons at her desk in the chamber listening to House Democrats spar with Mr. Trump’s legal team over whether to remove him from office. But Ms. Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta-based financial executive and Republican donor, has made a point of letting her constituents know that is not her primary focus.

“I wanted to let you know I am keeping farmer’s hours,” Ms. Loeffler told her constituents in a video posted to her Twitter account last week. “So even though we’ve had late nights here with the impeachment trial, I’m making sure I’m working hard for Georgia and not getting distracted by this impeachment.” (A spokeswoman for Ms. Loeffler declined to make her available for an interview.)

Ms. Loeffler, a former collegiate basketball player with a curtain of blond hair that falls to the middle of her back, cuts an unusual figure in the Senate, particularly in the overwhelmingly male Republican conference. During her second week on the job in the Capitol, a police officer stopped Ms. Loeffler on her way to a weekly Republican lunch and asked for identification, prompting a sharp correction from an aide.

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Ms. Loeffler was sworn in this month as the country found itself on the edge of war and the brink of the historic impeachment trial.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

To Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, that was precisely the point of selecting her to serve out the term of Mr. Isakson, who retired in December because of an illness. Mr. Kemp was betting that Ms. Loeffler could appeal to a critical bloc of suburban, moderate voters — especially women — whose support the party has struggled to maintain in the Trump era.

“She speaks their language,” Susan Meyers, a Republican strategist in Georgia, said in an interview. “Obviously she’s a woman, she’s a business owner, and like the president, she’s an outsider. She’s not another politician.”

But the president himself was not a fan and reportedly told Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Kemp as much in a contentious Oval Office meeting late last year.

Taking their cue from Mr. Trump, some of his allies attacked Ms. Loeffler’s credentials as insufficiently conservative and fumed when Mr. Kemp appointed her.

His allies also criticized her for donating, along with her husband, Jeff, over $1 million to Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. (Mr. Romney alluded to that support on Monday when asked to respond to her Twitter broadside against him, saying: “I think a good deal of Senator Loeffler. She and Jeff have supported me time and time again.”)

In her inaugural speech after Mr. Kemp announced her appointment, Ms. Loeffler sought to place herself firmly in the right wing of her party.

“I’m a lifelong conservative. Pro-Second Amendment. Pro-military. Pro-wall. And pro-Trump,” she said. “I make no apologies for my conservative values, and will proudly support President Trump’s conservative judges.”

Supporters say she has taken pains to reach out to grass-roots groups. At a recent political event in Atlanta hosted by the state’s Agriculture Department, the Wild Hog Supper, Ms. Loeffler made the rounds and was one of the last people to leave. She posted a photo on Twitter smiling with Penny Nance, the president of Concerned Women of America and a Trump ally, in January and pledged to work with her “on issues important to Georgia women and families!”

Also buoying Ms. Loeffler’s election hopes in November is her own pledge to personally furnish $20 million to her campaign, a staggering number that is sure to make potential challengers think twice before throwing their hat in the ring.

But the danger posed by Mr. Collins, who has become one of the president’s most strident and public-facing defenders among House Republicans, looms large. He will probably pick up the backing of some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters who previously cast aspersions on Ms. Loeffler’s nomination, like the Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Still, Ms. Loeffler has influential allies, including her fellow senator from Georgia, Mr. Perdue, who has emerged as a vocal supporter.

“I think she’s going to be fantastic,” he said. “She’s a student. She looks at these issues very carefully.”

Some of her legislative and campaign homework, however, will most likely be on pause until after the impeachment trial.

Cloistered in the Senate chamber for hours a day and commanded to stay silent, she is unable to familiarize herself with the labyrinthine layout of the Capitol or schedule one-on-one meetings to get to know her colleagues or discuss legislation. And under the punishing impeachment schedule, instead of flying home on Friday to meet with voters in Georgia, she will be in her seat on the Senate floor, listening to oral arguments.

Supporters say she can handle the challenge.

“Politics is loud and the pressure is on,” said Ryan Mahoney, a senior strategist close to both Mr. Kemp and Ms. Loeffler. “But Kelly is tough.”

Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.

Catie Edmondson is a reporter in the Washington bureau, covering Congress. More about Catie Edmondson

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: In New Senator’s First Month, A Trial and ‘Total Immersion’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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