Former GOP chair Wheeler in D.C. serving in SBA

Michael Wheeler said he will continue to call Boerne home, even though he’s now living and working some 1,600 miles away in the Trump administration.

Wheeler, the former Kendall County Republican Party chair, began his new role June 9 as a senior adviser for the U.S. Small Business Administration, serving in the Office of Investment and Innovation in Washington, D.C.

“When President Trump was elected, I felt I wanted to be part of his administration, especially with all of the change,” Wheeler said in a call from Washington, D.C. “Helping small businesses is a non-partisan issue. It really is focused on what’s best for small business.”

Wheeler said the process of earning the presidential appointment for his role went rather quickly, covering a period of less than three months.

“I have a business background, and so I found out how to apply to the White House,” he said. “I have a friend who knew somebody who was being nominated for a job in the SBA. We hit it off, and he sent my name in as well.” Wheeler was interviewed by SBA staff about 5 or 6 weeks ago.

“Once it started it didn’t take long at all. It’s taken a long time to get through confirmation in the Senate,” he said. “But once it was, it was, ‘How soon can you get here?”

The SBA, he said, is located in southwest Washington, D.C., right off the National Mall and within walking distance of the Capitol.

While finding suitable living arrangements kept him occupied, his role as senior adviser will keep him busy from here on out.

“Right now, with the Office of Investment and Innovation, that’s where a lot of the funding happens for critical technologies and new start-ups,” Wheeler said. “99.9 percent of businesses in the U.S. are small business, and they employ over 35 million. The heartbeat of our economy.”

During his first week on the job, he said it was “lots of information to absorb, really just trying to learn how it operates. I’m jumping right into it.

“ We are trying to reshore manufacturing in the U.S., with focus on the critical technologies and minerals. We’re involved in that,” he added.

Wheeler resigned his post as Kendall County Republican Party chair, but said he retains his state Republican executive committee seat for the district, a position he earned at the convention last summer.

And while his weekdays and nights are spent working less than a mile from the Potomac River, he plans to make Boerne a weekend getaway.

“I love Boerne so much. I’m not leaving Boerne and that’s the hardest part about this,” he said. “It’ll be weekdays in Washington and weekends back in Boerne.” Even though he remains fond of Boerne, he said he could not pass up the chance to go work in D.C.

“I have so many friends in Boerne,” he said, “but this is once in a lifetime opportunity. I am honored to take it.”