This is what a nightmare scenario looks like.
With the party worried in the wake of its unveiling in 2020 – when it lost too many centrist voters – the Republicans of the state are now worried that Greene will appear as the face of the GOP and contaminate the entire ticket with ‘ a stamp of conspiracy theory and extremism in the course up to the 2022 mid-period.
‘If you have a common sense, you know she’s an anchor at the party. She weighs us, ‘says Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election administrator who has become a leading voice criticizing the unfounded election conspiracy theories advocated by Trump and his supporters such as Greene.
‘Some people might say [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi will throw her out of Congress, Sterling said, referring to the House speaker. “The Democrats will never throw her out. They want her to be the definition of what a Republican is. They will give her every opportunity to speak and be heard and look crazy – as came out on Wednesday, the Jewish space laser to fire. I mean, I do not know how far into the rabbit hole you go. ”
Judging by old social media posts and videos that surfaced last week, the hole is pretty deep. Greene promoted the conspiracy theory that space lasers caused California wildfires, that school shootings were hoaxes, and suggested that House President Nancy Pelosi should be executed for treason.
Greene is expected to play a crucial role in a campaign issue in 2022 when Sterling’s boss, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, along with two other top Republicans, Government Brian Kemp and Lieutenant General Geoff Duncan, seek re-election.
All three are likely to face primary challenges, but the role of Raffensperger overseeing the state election and his office’s decision to take Trump in secret and ask him to somehow “finding” votes to block the results of the presidential election has made him a pinnacle of Trump supporters.
Against this backdrop, Greene is expected to play an elevated role, after which he will also stand for re-election in the conservative northwest corner of the state, where Republicans will have to fight.
Settling Republicans are worried that if the GOP nominates conservatives from the party’s Trump and Greene wing, they will run the risk of suffering the same fate as Republican senses Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who lost on January 5th.
Loeffler’s opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock, will be re-elected in 2022 and could share the ticket with Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic government candidate getting ready to run again.
Both Democrats are black, exacerbating the issue of race – a case that has upset Greene, who has a history of racist and racially sensitive remarks.
Key advisers to Loeffler say Trump probably cost her the election and that Greene was not a factor. But she could be in 2022 after saturating Greene’s comments in the past.
“Greene was just a symptom of what was going on in the state and, frankly, the country, in our election,” said a Loeffler adviser. “But in 2022, she’s going to be a symbol, assuming she’s not yet.”
During Greene’s 2020 race, Kemp privately advised Greene to show it off, according to a source informed about the conversation. But he is now in such a weakened position due to a years-long feud with Trump that he leaves Greene alone, at least for the time being.
“We are catching fire and there is not much we can do at the moment,” a Kemp adviser said.
Chip Lake, an adviser to Senate candidate in 2020 and former Representative Doug Collins, reflected other Republicans from Georgia who hoped President Joe Biden and the Democrats in control of Congress would overthrow the government during the 2022 elections. .
Until then, he said, Kemp and other top Republicans play time.
“This is the legislative session here in Georgia, so Kemp can say he’s focusing on it and that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a federal issue,” Lake said. “But over time, she’s going to become Kemp’s problem and she could be a problem for all of us.”
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is under pressure to punish Greene, but Georgian Republican insiders fear he may not punish her because Greene represents an energetic wing of the party and he will feel he can not afford one of Trump’s favorite office to punish. containers.
Some Georgia Republicans owe McCarthy and his allies in the House Freedom Caucus because they initially supported Greene’s congressional offer and then did nothing to stop her during the 2020 presidency after her offensive social media messages initially came to light.
At least one member of the state’s delegation to the GOP Congress, Representative Jody Hice, withdrew his endorsement during the campaign, saying he found Greene’s remarks a heinous and deeply disturbing affair. ”
After Hice Greene appropriated his support, a group of Republicans tried to get the support of a political committee from outside to tackle her during the primary election, but they could not raise money because ‘McCarthy was no help’, according to one strategist at the discussions was involved.
The group even launched a proposed TV ad on YouTube with Hice’s decision – the place calls her a ‘fraudulent’ because she moved to the district to elect her for the seat. Another group said another group of Republicans had a plan for another committee, but McCarthy withdrew from the donors. We could not raise money. ”
Asked about the allegations, a McCarthy spokeswoman did not comment on the matter, but said that her comments were “very disturbing” and that leader McCarthy was planning to have a discussion with the congresswoman about it. ‘
Republicans from Georgia expect Greene to face a primary challenge, and some hope she can somehow pull on a tougher seat during the redistribution. But they acknowledge that she is popular in her district.
John Cowan, Greene’s primary opponent in 2020, is considering running against her again. He blamed McCarthy, Trump’s White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and Ohio’s Jim Jim Jordan for supporting her. He said Democrats Greene, known under her initials “MTG”, were already making the face of the Republican Party – similar to how Republican Democrats wanted to label the party as the rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York.
‘MTG is the AOC of the GOP. But just as I hate to say it, AOC is nowhere so crazy as this, “Cowan said.” I’m a neurosurgeon. I diagnose crazy every day. It took her five minutes to realize that there was “bats were in the attic. And then we saw she had skeletons in the closet.”
A Greene spokesman did not send an email for comment on this story, nor did David Shafer, chairman of the IDP.
One of Greene’s closest allies is Georgia’s lawyer Lin Wood, who was at the center of the GOP conflict and represented her during the primary by threatening legal action against a Cowan supporter who criticized her on social media. Counselors of Cowan’s campaign, which contained the controversy in an advertisement, say they find it ironic that Greene – who wears a “censorship” mask to protest large technology companies that suspend flag posts and bills – is the man who the ad appears, and other critics on her Facebook page.
Greene had an early leg in her overcrowded presidency in 2020 because she voted for another seat in the state, but switched to the 14th Congress District when Representative Tom Graves unexpectedly retired. No one else has had a campaign staff or the top support Greene has already had, thanks to McCarthy and his allies, said Luke Martin, chairman of the GOP in Floyd County, one of the 12 counties in the district.
Martin said Greene has worked hard by holding several events and continues to give city halls in the district. And, he said, she’s not talking about QAnon or other wild conspiracy theories, nor on the stump.
“The people I talked to here say, ‘I like Marjorie, but wow, I wish she didn’ t say those things, ‘” Martin said. “The Marjorie we know in the district is not this Twitter person with laser beam.”
In Gordon County, GOP chairwoman Kathleen Thorman said there was a feeling that Greene was being portrayed inaccurately in the headline media. Thorman, Greene’s voters, appreciate some of her early actions in Congress, such as her petition to accuse Biden, because people want to know more about his son’s business dealings when he was vice president.
“People are crazy because they feel that Congress and the media are trying to silence their voice. “They voted for her and they feel that their voice is being silenced,” Thorman said. “In two years, when she’s running again, we’ll see what happens.”
Murray County GOP President Tony Abernathy expressed a similar sentiment in a text message: “The true story is that we love Marjorie Taylor Greene very much and that we are tired of the national media coming to Georgia to to tell us how to think in her district. ‘
Brian Robinson, an adviser to former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, frustrated that criticism of Greene would lead to the kind of march she sees in the district and in her fundraising, raising her profile and ensuring Republicans across the board the country ‘constantly’ puts in place this circular fire platoon on why we are losing elections. ”
According to him, Greene has an “it” factor and a control of social media that ensures news media attention, outrage from her critics and admiration and campaign contributions from her base.
‘Here’s the problem with Marjorie Taylor Greene: you can’ t look away. She has excellent camera presence. She has good TV presence. She’s a natural, a real talent, ‘Robinson said. ‘The question is whether she’s an idiot who is a natural talent, or is she just a cynical manipulator? I just believe she’s a real idiot who happens to be good at camera. But we will see. ”