Photo by Jacqueline Bennett  Then Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Greenwich, Connecticut, Linda McMahon, shakes hands with firefighter Ernest Jones during the Peach Festival August 24, 2012 in Manchester, CT.

By Jacqueline Bennett newsandviewsjb.com

Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon has been tapped to head the Small Business Administration by President Donald Trump. In a show of bi-partisan support, she was introduced at her confirmation hearing on Capital Hill January 24 by two former political opponents, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, both Connecticut Democrats.

“I think she would be an excellent fit for this agency, “Blumenthal said at the hearing, “She knows, as I do, that small businesses are the backbone of the economy.” Blumenthal went on to say that McMahon has utilized her expertise to help veterans and women realize their dreams.

Various news organizations featured a side-by-side photo of McMahon, Blumenthal and Murphy at the confirmation hearing. A visual which Murphy acknowledged would be “a little amusing and surprising’ to voters in Connecticut who watched them “duke it out” for a senate seat.

It was a hot summer evening in August of 2012 when then candidate Linda McMahon make a campaign stop at the Peach Festival in Manchester, Connecticut. This annual fundraiser put on by volunteer firefighters from the Eighth Utilities District attracts a large turnout of Manchester residents plus a good number of folks from surrounding towns. An upbeat event it is known to draw politicians – both those in office and those seeking office.

McMahon, of Greenwich, a former wrestling entertainment executive for the WWE, said it was a return stop noting she had visited the Peach Festival two years earlier. During that interview at the festival, McMahon said that she was planning to work hard every day to get her message out. McMahon stepped onto the statewide political stage becoming the GOP nominee to run for United States senate in races she subsequently lost to Blumenthal in 2010 then Murphy in 2012.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in December 2016, Murphy backed McMahon to head the SBA. “She turned a small business into a big multinational business which is what a lot of small businesses want to become,” said Murphy, adding, “She is a Connecticut Republican … she’s bringing some important moderate values to the administration.”