On Tuesday, Feb. 8th, Betsy DeVos was confirmed into Trump’s Cabinet by a 50-50 vote with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie.  DeVos was the target of Senate Democrats due to her religious, conservative views and statements she made at her confirmation hearing.

DeVos was unable to answer basic questions on education policies and went on to argue that guns should be allowed in schools to prevent bear attacks. She is a strong proponent of the privatization of education. DeVos supports vouchers, which allocate public funding towards a student’s private school education, therefore diverting the money that would have gone to public schools and privatizing education in general.

The Michigan billionaire belongs to one of the richest families in the world. According to a statement Bernie Sanders made at DeVos’s confirmation hearings, her family has donated more than 200 million dollars to the Republican party between 1980 and 2016. She is chair of an investment firm – the Windquest group – which she founded with her husband Dick DeVos Jr.; the billionaire owner of Orlando Magic and son of the billionaire co-founder of Amway Corporations.

DeVos went to solely Christian schools for college and grade school. According to Politico, her education mission is to “advance God’s kingdom” and her family has supported anti-gay marriage efforts in the past. DeVos has never worked in a school, attended a public school or even studied education. Political scientist Jeffrey Winters told the New York Times that DeVos is one of the most oligarchic people one can put on the Cabinet.

DeVos has been politically active since the 1970s and was a Republican National Committeewoman until 1997. Her husband ran for governor of Michigan in 2006 and lost to Democrat Jennifer Granholm, although he quite literally  broke the record for governor campaign spending at.

Civil rights activists, teacher’s unions such as National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers and more opposers of Betsy DeVos sent over a million emails and made tens of thousands of phone calls to Senators against her. A record of 1.5 million petition signatures and 30,000 phone calls were made in effort to try and block DeVos from her seat in the Cabinet, though ultimately proving unsuccessful.