Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won her primary in Georgia’s 14th congressional district Tuesday night.
The fiery lawmaker scored a win in her first reelection bid, grabbing more than 70 percent of the vote with just over half the ballots counted.
While her divisive style has garnered criticism from Democrats and a plethora of national headlines, the all-important support of Donald Trump seems to have caught on with Greene’s constituents.
The former president had praised Greene as a “warrior” in his first endorsement and has appeared with her several times since leaving office, most recently at the Mar-a-Lago premiere of far-right activist Dinesh D’Souza’s new film 2000 Mules.
Meanwhile, Trump scored another win at the Peach State with Senate GOP primary nominee Herschel Walker, a former soccer star who has a personal friendship with the ex-president that stretches back decades.
Walker’s candidacy was initially met with concern from establishment Republicans — particularly because of his self-confessed dissociative identity disorder and previous allegations of domestic violence.
But even Trump’s rival, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, increasingly endorsed Walker after believing he was the most viable candidate.
Walker will now face Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in November’s midterm elections.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her main opponent, Health Manager Jennifer Strahan, both spent the weekend courting voters’ attention in Georgia’s 14th congressional district
US Senate nominee Herschel Walker addresses supporters Tuesday, May 24, during an election night party. He will face Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in the midterm elections in November
Walker’s mother, Christine Walker, watched as her son spoke
Greene competed against a crowded field of five GOP major challengers trying to take their place in Georgia’s heavily rural 14th congressional district.
Most impressive was health executive Jennifer Strahan, whose no-nonsense conservative approach earned her the support of state GOP groups and a campaign appearance from incumbent Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, one of Greene’s congressional colleagues.
But Strahan began chasing Greene early in the polls, despite bringing her campaign an impressive amount of outside attention. A little over two hours after the polls closed, the businesswoman hovered at 15 percent.
The Peach State broke records for early voting for a primary, with more than 850,000 votes already cast, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
“Compared to early turnout in the last primary, this represented a 168 percent jump from 2018, the last gubernatorial primary, and a 212 percent jump from 2020, the last presidential primary year,” his office said in a statement.
Raffensperger credited the state’s newly passed Election Security Act with the increase by creating “short lines, smooth easy access to the polls and confidence in poll security,” though Democrat critics called it “voter suppression.”
Strahan hoped to offer voters the same kind of Trump-inspired America First policies without the eyebrow-raising headlines that led to Greene being stripped of her committee duties by the Democrat-led House of Representatives early last year.
Asked how Greene was feeling ahead of Tuesday’s race, her rep told on Monday that “she’s very confident.”
He also sent links to Greene’s Telegram channel, which included images of the congressmen mingling and hugging voters ahead of their first reelection bid.
Among Strahan’s most persistent lines of attack against Greene are reports from constituents who claim that lawmakers are not interacting with them and are ignoring their needs.
The businesswoman’s campaign claims Greene is already playing dirty and shares with screenshots of messages from people who claim to have seen Strahan campaign signs ripped out of the ground.
“Hey, I just saw a pickup truck coming down the street down here… They tore down all the Strahan signs and put up MTG signs. I think they feel threatened,” one of the messages said.
Another message to Strahan’s campaign read: “I know you get millions of messages and will probably never see this, but just wanted to let you know that I’m (sp) Summerville on Highway 114. I saw a mad man tear down your signs and throw them in the woods.’
Greene’s rep directed to the Congresswoman’s Telegram channel, where she shared photos and videos of herself with supporters
Greene’s critics want to see a repeat of her ally Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s stunning defeat in North Carolina last week against an establishment-backed Republican rival — but political pundits don’t think that will be the case.
dr MV Hood III, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia and director of the SPIA Survey Research Center, told that Greene’s national headlines – including her past support for QAnon theories and backing calls for violence against Democrats – include are leaders before she was in office – do not have the same effect at the local level in the 14th district.
‘She makes retail policy. She’s in the district, she talks to people, she does a lot of very normal things – even if she seems a bit extreme in some of what she says – I mean, the kind of things she does in her district are very normal. said hood.
He added that he would “not be surprised” if Greene managed to sail past the 50 percent threshold to victory Tuesday night, which is required to avoid a runoff.
“I find it hard to believe that Republicans would turn against them now,” Jay Williams, a Republican strategist in Georgia, told .
Williams said Greene’s constituents aren’t likely to see her name in the news the way people who follow major national media outlets like the New York Times and CNN, which he described as a “national echo chamber.”
“Even if it’s true, they might not believe it, or they might not care because it’s coming from CNN or some of these other outlets. So it’s going to be difficult to get down to that regular Republican voter,” he said.
When asked about Strahan’s chances, Williams called the businesswoman’s campaign “uninspiring” and “uninteresting” — emphasizing the uphill struggle to get all of Greene’s GOP critics into one faction, especially when four other candidates are trying to do the same.
The deep red county winner is the likely favorite for the November Midterms seat.