ROME, Ga. — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday barnstormed around her congressional district on the first day of early voting in Georgia, telling voters that woke Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans are presiding over a “broken” federal government that has left Americans like them in the lurch.
The polarizing Mrs. Greene, bidding for a second term in the 14th Congressional District, said voters are suffering because of Congress’ failure to address the rising costs of food and gasoline and the unprecedented migration mess at the southern border. She said those issues will be her top priorities if she is reelected.
“This is how people feel all over America, and unfortunately, rural Americans and most Americans haven’t had a voice for a very long time,” the 47-year-old married mother of three said after casting her vote. “Our government is very broken.”
“It is hard to have fun when inflation is out of control, gas prices are insane and then we have a wide-open border and we’ve got President Butter Beans in office,” she told voters at a separate stop.
Mrs. Greene insists things will improve — for the country and for her — if Republicans flip control of the House in the midterm elections. The current Democratic majority has tied her hands, she said, but dramatic changes will come after significant Republican victories in November, as many polls suggest.
Mrs. Greene said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has promised her “great” committee assignments, suggesting judiciary and oversight could be a good fit. She is also vowing to push for investigations into the “Biden crime family” and into whether taxpayer money had a role in the origins of COVID-19, which she called a “bioweapon.”
“The federal government is failing the American people so badly,” she said. “They’re ruining a perfectly good country.”
Mrs. Greene won her seat in 2020 but was stripped of her committee assignments less than a month after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Majority Democrats made the move citing what they said were her past incendiary comments and apparent support of violence against lawmakers.
Her no-holds-barred style, penchant for controversial comments and willingness to take on members of both parties have made her a hyperpolarizing figure. She is even facing a legal battle from a group that says her “pro-insurrection” comments regarding the Capitol riot disqualify her from the ballot.
Mrs. Greene embraces former President Donald Trump and promotes his claim that the 2020 election was stolen, including in Georgia. Joseph R. Biden was the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to carry the state in a presidential election. Mrs. Greene said Republicans need a civil war to weed out more moderate members and give conservatives a more prominent voice in the party.
As far as accomplishments, Mrs. Greene told voters she pulled $6 million in federal funds into the district and brought transparency to the House by forcing roll-call votes on hundreds of pieces of legislation that otherwise would have flown under the radar.
Her high profile and confrontational style have not given her a clear path to a nomination in the state’s May 24 primary, however.
Five other Republicans running in the primary say Mrs. Greene has become too partisan and too controversial to legislate effectively, even in a Republican-run House.
Jennifer Strahan, a health care executive who has gained support from the likes of Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said the interest in her candidacy is a direct result of Republican misgivings about Mrs. Greene.
“The individuals who are supporting me aren’t supporting me because they know me,” Mrs. Strahan said. “They are supporting me because they know Rep. Greene.”
The behind-the-scenes hope among the anti-Greene crowd is that Republicans who silently don’t like her will come out of the woodwork if she fails to win more than 50% of the vote and is pushed into a runoff.
A fit for the district
On Monday, Mrs. Greene said her style fits her district. Tucked into the far northwestern corner of the state bordering Tennessee and Alabama, the 14th District went for Mr. Trump over Mr. Biden in the 2020 election by a 73% to 25% margin. The district is 77% White, and the largest cities have populations of less than 50,000.
“I am not willing to cross lines,” Mrs. Greene said. “When I’m saying, ‘Lines have been drawn in the sand,’ I seriously mean it, and I think my constituents and supporters really support that because they are not used to seeing that from politicians in Washington.”
Trump-inspired conservatives adore Mrs. Greene, a critical factor in a deep-red district.
“I love Marjorie because she is a doer,” said Lyndon Smith, a retired Marine. “She is shaking things up, up there. I’m sick and tired of business as usual and our country being destroyed.”
Mr. Smith said Mrs. Greene deserves credit for helping to block the “communist, socialist” agenda being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he described as “the devil.”
Mrs. Greene is “willing to take a hit, and she’s willing to be confrontational, whereas almost all the men run for cover,” he said.
Mrs. Greene’s race is playing out under voting rules Gov. Brian Kemp and the Republican-controlled legislature passed last year. The rules shrank the time window for requesting an absentee ballot, established ID requirements for absentee ballots and curbed the number of ballot drop boxes and the times they are available. Democrats say the law seeks to suppress the vote in minority communities. Republicans say that’s not the case.
Mrs. Greene’s take-no-prisoners approach helped her win Mr. Trump’s endorsement.
Angered at the failure of senior Georgia Republicans to back his election fraud claims, Mr. Trump also has thrown his weight behind former Sen. David Perdue’s primary challenge to Mr. Kemp and Rep. Jody Hice’s challenge to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Mrs. Greene declined Monday to say how she voted in those primary contests.
Mrs. Greene also clashed with a television reporter when asked whether she is concerned that her recent comments about Nazis in Ukraine and a 2018 social media post about the Rothschild family have stoked antisemitism in Georgia.
“You’re lying. Stop right now. You’re lying,” she said. “I have one of the most pro-Israel records in Congress. I have never in my life been antisemitic.”
Mrs. Greene also faced blowback last week when she said Satan is controlling the Catholic Church because of its strong support for illegal immigrants.
Her swing Monday around the district included stops at a mom-and-pop diner that has struggled to hire servers and a construction company whose fuel costs have doubled over the course of two years and has passed those costs on to customers.
Mrs. Greene was met at her polling place by a small group of loyal supporters holding signs that read “NW Georgia [Loves] MTG” and “Flood the Polls” and sporting T-shirts emblazoned with “1776” and “Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History.”
“She fights for us and for what we all believe in, and she is a Trump supporter and so am I,” said one of her female supporters. “It doesn’t matter what it is; she is there for us.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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