Senate Confirms WWE’s Linda McMahon to Lead Small Business Administration

Senators voted to confirm Linda McMahon as the new head of President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration by a vote of 81-to-19.

McMahon, with her husband Vince McMahon, started working in professional wrestling shortly after their 1966 marriage and created what is now known as the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The WWE is a publicly traded company that produces such pop icons at Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, John Cena and The Rock,  and sends its wrestlers around to arenas around the country, and staged mega-pay-per-view programs like WrestleMainia.

It was a tribute to McMahon that she was introduced to the Senate’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee at her Jan. 24 confirmation hearing by the two Senate Democrats she opposed. McMahon ran against and lost to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) in 2010 and ran against and lost to Sen. Christopher Murphy (D.-Conn.). Both men vouched for McManhon and voted for her confirmation.

On the Senate floor minutes before the vote, the chairman of the committee, Sen. James Risch (R.-Idaho) highlighted that moment at McMahon’s hearing.

“They had been adversaries previously, but they were here. They appeared before the committee to enthusiastically endorse her as the head of the SBA,” he said.

“Senator Blumenthal said: ‘She is an excellent fit for this agency based on her experience and her expertise as a business leader,'” he said.

“Senator Murphy stated: ‘I will  never question whether she has the experience and the determination necessary to lead this great agency.’ These are strong endorsements by people of the other party for a person who has been nominated by President Trump.”

The top Democrat on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee New Hampshire’s Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said on the floor before the vote that she was voting for McMahon because of her experience building a business and for her commitment to her that McMahon would oppose any effort to fold the SBA into the Commerce Department or to downgrade the position of administrator from its place in the full cabinet.