Her name isn’t on the ballot. She no longer serves in Congress. But Marjorie Taylor Greene is looming large in the minds of north-west Georgia voters as they prepare to choose who to replace her with in Washington.
Known for her hard-line Christian conservative views, brash committee appearances, and embrace of multiple conspiracy theories, Greene quickly became one of the most prominent Republican members of Congress after winning her seat in 2020.
“She did some stuff off the wall,” said Justin Leonard, 28-year-old firefighter in Georgia’s 14th congressional district, who voted for Greene twice. “Kind of making conservatives look a little right-wing and a little like nut jobs. But other than that, I think she did her job.”
But when Greene broke her unwavering support for US President Donald Trump late last year, the pair’s rift descended into a very public feud that ultimately led to her decision to quit Congress in January.
I lived there for 10 years and while the ignorant redneck stereotype is certainly very well-represented there, there are also a lot more progressives than you’d think.
Especially in Atlanta and the college towns. And a LOT of Black people who are not politically represented in the media at all, but who vote regularly and often have progressive opinions. Stacey Abrams, for example, is a powerhouse of a political activist, as well as Georgia through and through.
This thing where a given state or region is represented as one homogenized whole is just the same old Trump us vs. them tactic turned in a different direction. Maybe it makes people feel better, but I got news for them: there are racist motherfuckers and nutjob conspiracy believers in EVERY single state of the union, and P.R. and Guam and the USVI too.
I moved to California, and can confirm: the people in the rural areas in this state are an awful lot like the ones in Georgia!