Linda McMahon

Linda Marie McMahon ( mək-MAN; née Edwards; born October 4, 1948) is an American administrator, business executive and former professional wrestling executive who has served as the 13th United States secretary of education since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 25th administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019.

McMahon, along with her husband, Vince McMahon, founded sports entertainment company Titan Sports (later World Wrestling Entertainment; WWE), where she worked as the president and later chief executive officer from 1980 to 2009. During this time, the company grew from a regional business in the northeast to a large multinational corporation. Among other things, she initiated the company's civic programs, Get R.E.A.L. and SmackDown! Your Vote. She made occasional on-screen performances, most notably in a feud with her husband that culminated at WrestleMania X-Seven. In 2009, she left WWE to run for a seat in the United States Senate from Connecticut as a Republican, but lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the 2010 Senate election. She was the Republican nominee for Connecticut's other Senate seat in the 2012 race, but lost to Democrat Chris Murphy.

On December 7, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of McMahon to be Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) for the first Trump administration. McMahon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 14, 2017, by a vote of 81–19 and sworn in as the 25th administrator of the SBA. On March 29, 2019, the Trump administration announced McMahon would step down as the administrator of the SBA in April to work on his upcoming re-election campaign.

In 2021, McMahon was the founding chairwoman of the America First Policy Institute.

McMahon was born Linda Marie Edwards in New Bern, North Carolina, in a Welsh-American family, the daughter of Evelyn and Henry Edwards. She was an only child and grew up as a "tomboy" playing basketball and baseball. Her parents were both employees at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, a military base. She grew up in a conservative Baptist family, but converted to Roman Catholicism in her later years.

Linda M. Edwards, at the age of 13, met Vince McMahon, who was then 16. Her mother worked in the same building as McMahon's mother, but they had not previously met.

Vince's mother became good friends with the Edwards family, and Vince, who had lived with several abusive stepfathers, enjoyed the feeling of stability that he felt at their home. Edwards and McMahon dated throughout their high school years; she attended New Bern High School and he attended Fishburne Military School in Virginia. During this time, Vince was a "permanent fixture" at her home, and spent hours with Linda and her family.

Shortly after her high school graduation, Vince asked her to marry him. They married on August 26, 1966, when she was 17, and he was 21. She enrolled at East Carolina University in 1966, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in French. The academic program she completed was designed to prepare teachers for instruction. From 1968 to 1971, Vince worked as a traveling cup salesman before joining his father's company, the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, later WWF, now WWE). Their son Shane was born in 1970, followed by daughter Stephanie in 1976.

In 1969, the McMahons moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland. Linda worked as a receptionist at the corporate law firm of Covington & Burling; she translated French documents, trained as a paralegal in the probate department, and studied intellectual property rights.

Financially, the couple fared poorly for several years and, despite her husband working at a quarry, briefly received food stamps. In 1976, after a series of failed business ventures including financing stunt performer Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon Jump, and while pregnant with Stephanie, McMahon and her husband filed for bankruptcy.

By 1979, Vince decided to start promoting wrestling events at the Cape Cod Coliseum. He purchased the Coliseum in Massachusetts and founded Titan Sports, Inc. in 1980. The McMahons held small hockey and other sporting events in addition to wrestling at the Cape Cod Coliseum. At one point, Linda cooked meatball sandwiches to feed the fans at these sporting events. As the company grew, Linda assisted Vince with administration and used her knowledge of intellectual property law to assist in trademark protection for the company. During much of those early years, she had little interest in professional wrestling.

In 1983, the McMahons moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. They have six grandchildren.

Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon co-founded Titan Sports, Inc. in 1980. Many workers in the company referred to her as the "co-chief executive". McMahon became president in 1993 and CEO of the company in 1997. The company's explosive growth and the way it transformed the wrestling industry caused some observers to label her and Vince "business geniuses".

One of her major interests in WWF and WWE was product merchandising. She negotiated many of the company's business deals with outside vendors and established the company's first line of action figures, Wrestling Superstars, in 1984. It was a first in the wrestling industry and helped expand the company's popularity with children. She was also the primary negotiator for the World Wrestling Federation's 2000 TV deal with Viacom.

During an interview with The Detroit News, when asked what it was like being CEO in a "testosterone-charged industry," McMahon replied, "It's lots of fun. I'm an only child, so I grew up as my father's son and mother's daughter. I was quite a jock. I played baseball, basketball—I think that background made Vince and I very compatible. I really have a very good understanding of the male psyche—I'm very comfortable in a guy environment. I have to say that there are very strong women in this company as well. Our human resources division and our consumer goods division are headed by women—It's still a testosterone business, and I like it."

On September 16, 2009, Linda McMahon resigned from her position as CEO of WWE and left WWE to run as a Republican for a seat in the United States Senate from Connecticut.

In a 1989 memo to the company's vice president, Pat Patterson, McMahon directed Patterson to fire on-call physician George Zahorian and inform him of imminent legal charges charging him with steroid distribution.

McMahon was appointed to the Connecticut State Board of Education by Governor Jodi Rell in January 2009.

McMahon also sat on the Connecticut Board of Education for one year starting in 2009. She told lawmakers at the time that she had a lifelong interest in education and once planned to become a teacher. She filled out a vetting questionnaire for the board position stating that she had a degree in education from East Carolina University in 1969, although her degree was actually in French.

She went through a confirmation process in the Connecticut State Assembly where she was questioned on her record as CEO of WWE. The State Senate approved her nomination by a vote of 34–1 and the House by 96–45 with some opponents expressing concerns that the nature of her WWE activities would send the wrong message. State representative Bruce Morris claimed she lacked "depth of knowledge regarding education". However, state representative John Hetherington said it "would be good to have someone outside the establishment on the board".

On April 1, 2010, McMahon resigned from the State Board of Education in response to a state election commission's legal opinion that disallowed board members from soliciting campaign contributions. McMahon had entered the race for U.S. Senate months earlier.

On September 16, 2009, McMahon announced her candidacy for U.S. senator to represent the state of Connecticut. She announced she would spend up to $50 million of her own money to finance her campaign and refused outside donations, the third most ever spent on a senatorial campaign. She ran for the Republican nomination, campaigning on promises of lower taxes, fiscal conservatism, and job creation. She campaigned as socially moderate, and identified herself as pro-choice while also opposing partial-birth abortion and federal funding for abortions.

On December 7, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate McMahon to serve as administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA).

McMahon's confirmation hearing occurred on January 24, 2017. Her nomination was approved by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on February 1, 2017 with an 18–1 vote. McMahon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 14, 2017 by a bipartisan vote of 81–19.

McMahon was officially sworn in as the 25th Administrator of the Small Business Administration on February 14, 2017.

Throughout 2017, McMahon visited 68 cities to hear from small business owners and to support the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 backed by President Trump. On McMahon's first anniversary as head of the SBA, on January 29, 2018, The Washington Post said the SBA's progress under McMahon had been "so far, so good" and credited her with improving the SBA's offices' emergency call centers in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, hiring an additional 3,000 people to work them, and revamping the administration's online presence.

On June 17, 2017, in an interview with CNBC, McMahon stated that in her role as administrator of SBA she was "[l]earning how to develop business plans, how to grow, how to pitch [one's] business when [one is] trying to get investors, or to move into a different market and those are aspects of SBA that are not as well known", as the main goals of the SBA were capital, counseling, contracts and disaster relief. She also stated that the goals were being challenged, as the agency faced a five percent budget cut and future restructuring. "What we have done is look inside SBA, and what I have found is there are some duplicative programs that we are going to be merging."

America First Action, a pro-Trump Super PAC chaired by McMahon, helped raise $83 million for Trump's reelection campaign in 2020. McMahon also serves as chair of the board for the America First Policy Institute, along with vice chair Larry Kudlow, former director of the National Economic Council under Trump and Fox Business host. McMahon went on to join Howard Lutnick as co-chair of Trump's second transition team.

On November 19, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of McMahon to head the Department of Education for his second administration.

Throughout her nomination process, McMahon expressed support for school choice and charter schools in the United States.

On January 20, 2025, McMahon's nomination was received in the U.S. Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The nomination hearing was scheduled for February 13, 2025. The committee advanced her nomination in a 12–11 vote on February 20. On March 3, 2025, the U.S. Senate confirmed McMahon as United States secretary of education with a 51–45 vote.

Before her confirmation Trump emphasized that McMahon's primary objective would be to close the Department of Education, stating, "I want her to put herself out of a job." McMahon echoed Trump's comments, stating that the department was not needed when asked directly if the United States needed the department.

McMahon was sworn in by Jacqueline Clay as the 13th United States Secretary of Education on March 3, 2025.