Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican firebrand and ally of President Donald Trump, is passing on the Senate race in Georgia.
“I’m not running,” she said in a lengthy post on social media on Friday, citing her frustrations with the Senate as the main reason she didn’t want to run. “Even with a few good Republicans in the Senate, nothing changes.”
The two-term Georgia representative’s name had been floated as a potential Republican candidate after popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp passed on a bid this week to take on incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff. Greene’s decision loomed large over the race, with many Democrats salivating over the possibility she’d enter the contest in one of the swingiest of swing states in the nation.
Trump carried Georgia by about 2 percentage points last year, after Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state since former President Bill Clinton in 1992.
In passing on a run, Greene, a prolific fundraiser and darling of conservative media, nevertheless claimed she could have won.
“When I met with the NRSC a few weeks ago, they told me their internal polling shows any Republican can beat Ossoff,” she said in her post. “But now they’re pushing a public poll of just 800 people claiming only certain Republicans can win.”
The outspoken MAGA star’s lengthy statement left open the door for another statewide run. She did not rule out the possibility of running for governor to succeed Kemp, who is term-limited.
Should she decide to embark on a gubernatorial bid, many questions that hovered over her potential Senate run would remain. Georgia, with its demographic shifts, has become a purple state in recent years, now with two Democratic senators in Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
While Republicans control the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the state legislature — and while Trump won in 2024 — the state is not considered a MAGA stronghold.
Georgia Republicans bucked the president in recent elections, including during the 2022 cycle when Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger roundly defeated Trump-backed primary challengers after both men rejected efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. They were able to cruise reelection victories in the general election.
Raffensperger has not signaled if he plans to run again for statewide office, but is likely to be a formidable candidate should he decide to run to succeed Kemp or challenge Ossoff for his seat.
