Linda McMahon at Feb. 14 confirmation hearing.
WASHINGTON — Connecticut businesswoman Linda McMahon was confirmed along party lines Monday as the 13th U.S. secretary of education even as she said she would “wholeheartedly” support President Donald Trump’s efforts to shut down the cabinet agency.
The vote was 51 – 45. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted last month along party lines to send her nomination to the floor.
“Every decision made at the Department will be driven by a commitment to support meaningful learning and empower our most important stakeholders: students, families, and teachers,” McMahon said in a statement after the vote. “We will empower states and districts to have more say in what is working on the ground for students instead of bureaucratic edicts from Washington.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D‑Conn., a member of the committee, opposed her confirmation.
“Donald Trump wants to get rid of the Department of Education, wants to destroy public schools,” Murphy said last month in a video posted on X after the committee approved McMahon. “That’s not popular anywhere in this country. That’s not what Donald Trump was elected to do.”
McMahon had voiced support for eliminating the education department in response to questions submitted by U.S. Sens. Andy Kim, D‑N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D‑Mass., after the committee’s Feb. 14 confirmation hearing.
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs,” she wrote. “I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission.”
Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R‑S.D., said on the Senate floor Monday that McMahon “recognizes education is not one size, fits all. States have different needs, school districts and individual schools have different needs, and every student has his or her own needs and aspirations.”
Murphy last month described McMahon’s testimony during her hearing as “bone chilling,” charged that the Trump administration wants to micromanage public school curricula, and said he was a “hell no” on her confirmation.
“They might get into the business of telling you what clubs your kids can belong to, what history classes your kids can take. It’s not going to be up to schools any longer,” he said. “That scares the crap out of parents out there.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D‑N.Y., in his floor speech Monday said confirming McMahon “would be a slap in the face to students, parents, teachers who care about our public schools.”
“Slashing funds for schools, students, parents, and teachers — all for the sake of billionaires’ tax breaks — is a very bad idea,” he added.
McMahon, who ran World Wrestling Entertainment with her husband Vince (the two have since separated), served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, ran a super PAC supporting him during his 2020 campaign, and then led a Trump-aligned policy group, the America First Policy Institute, after the election.
She spent $100 million — almost all of it from her own bank account — in losing campaigns in 2010 against Democrat Richard Blumenthal and in 2012 against Murphy. She lost each race by 12 percentage points.
McMahon reported holdings of at least $414.8 million in her personal financial disclosure form. Her liabilities included a line of credit of $25 million to $50 million and a home mortgage of $1 million to $5 million.
In a letter to the education department’s designated ethics official, McMahon said she would resign from the board of directors of the Trump Media & Technology Group and forfeit any unvested stock in the company.
She also agreed to resign from board positions at her family foundation, Sacred Heart University, the foundation associated with the right-wing website the Daily Caller, and two policy groups formed by Trump allies.
McMahon said she also would sell off her bond holdings in dozens of school districts and colleges.