Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, began making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week for meetings with senators as part of her confirmation process. 

McMahon, the billionaire World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder, oversaw the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term before leaving to co-chair America First Action, a Trump-aligned super PAC, and the America First Policy Institute. She went on to serve alongside Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, as co-chairs of the president-elect’s second transition team, overseeing policy. 

Prior to entering the national political realm, McMahon spent over a year as a member of the Connecticut State Board of Education. She is a staunch advocate for universal school choice and charter schools, though it is not clear if she or Trump intend to abolish the department altogether, as some conservatives have long pushed for. 

“The president is looking forward to raising the level of education across the country by sending education back to the states,” McMahon told reporters in the Capitol on Monday when asked about dismantling the department altogether, adding that she was “not going to get ahead of the president’s policies” when it came to specifics.

Among the senators McMahon had met with as of Tuesday evening were incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), incoming Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Roger Marshall (R-KS). She also briefly spoke by phone with Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) about her plans for the department, though House lawmakers do not vote on Cabinet nominees. 

The meetings largely resulted in statements of praise for McMahon’s commitment to school choice and de-federalizing the education system. She will meet in the coming weeks with the rest of the GOP conference, though it is not clear if she has meetings with any Senate Democrats on the books. 

How McMahon plans to approach the issue of antisemitism on college campuses in her role remains to be seen. Asked in the Capitol on Tuesday if she planned to make the issue a priority if confirmed as education secretary, McMahon replied affirmatively. 

“Certainly. I don’t think we should have any kind of discrimination anywhere, and I absolutely abhor any kind of violence that we have seen on campus. It should not be allowed,” McMahon told Jewish Insider. “We have lots of priorities that I’m going to be dealing with, and certainly anything that is against the safety and welfare of any of our students will be a priority.”

Several Republicans who have led on the domestic antisemitism front expressed confidence that McMahon’s nomination would be helpful to their efforts. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who will chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee in the next Congress, told JI that McMahon would be “a strong ally” in the fight to combat antisemitism. Cassidy is widely expected to hold a HELP hearing on campus antisemitism in the next Congress, something he has been pushing for since last November. He said that he had already spoken to McMahon for a “courtesy phone call” ahead of their first in-person meeting. 

“That’s the way it should be, whether you’re Jewish or not,” Cassidy said of McMahon being an ally to the Jewish community, arguing that she is someone who understands that, “You don’t beat up kids, you don’t intimidate kids going to class.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the Republican co-chair of the Senate task force alongside Rosen, praised McMahon as a strong choice for the role and said he planned to raise his concerns about campus antisemitism during their first meeting since she was nominated. “Yes, absolutely, that will come up,” the Oklahoma senator told JI of the subject. 

“She did a great job before. She’s a good administrator,” Lankford added, praising McMahon’s SBA tenure. 

The platform McMahon has advocated for as chairwoman of AFPI describes addressing the rise of campus antisemitism, Holocaust denialism and malign foreign influence on universities as priorities in the higher education space. The platform also vehemently opposes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, though McMahon has not written about or released statements on the antisemitism issue personally. 

Democrats who have pushed for Congress and the Biden administration to take action on antisemitism this past year said they worried about Republicans dismantling the department, though some said they were willing to work with McMahon on combating antisemitism.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who beat McMahon in the high-profile contest for former Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat in 2010, said that he has no meetings scheduled with McMahon “at this moment,” but said he’d like to see “a firm commitment” from the Education Department nominee to address the surge in campus antisemitism reports. “I think that’s the kind of issue where she ought to have a very clear and unequivocal position,” he told JI. 

“So far, what I know about her views on education are that she seems to favor dismantling the Department of Education and ending most support for public education, so I have very severe reservations about her nomination and she seems unwilling or unable at this point to say much about her views,” Blumenthal said. 

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that while he did not know of McMahon, he opposed calls from Republicans to eliminate the Department of Education and would not support her nomination if she held such a view. “I can say that I’ve never thought about Linda McMahon ever once in my life,” Fetterman said. 

“It’s kind of hard, because the only thing now is they always want to say, we want to abolish it, or whatever,” he explained of his concerns about Republicans dismantling the department. “That’s pretty bizarre and that’s unserious. I would love to have a conversation on making it better, maybe, but [not] if the first thing is that we’ve got to abolish it.”

A spokesperson for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the Democratic co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, said in a statement that the Nevada senator would be willing to meet with McMahon to discuss campus antisemitism. The statement did not say if Rosen was considering supporting McMahon’s nomination.

“Senator Rosen is open to meeting with Linda McMahon to discuss the critical need for the Department of Education to take further action to address the widespread instances of antisemitism on college campuses and at schools across our country,” Rosen’s spokesperson said.