GA-14, GA-06: Republican Marjorie Greene, a wealthy construction company owner who has a habit of spreading far-right conspiracy theories about the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, announced Friday that she would drop her campaign against freshman Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath in the 6th District and run instead for the open and safely red 14th District.
Greene was the last notable Republican running against former Rep. Karen Handel in the primary, so her departure from the 6th District is good news for the former congresswoman. However, Greene herself may have a tough time gaining traction in the May primary to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Graves in the 14th District.
To begin with, the 14th and 6th Districts not only don't border one another, they're also very different seats. While McBath's constituency is a seat is located in Atlanta's affluent northern suburbs, Graves' district is very rural turf. Greene is based in Alpharetta, which is located about 20 miles from the nearest community in the 14th District, though her team said earlier this month that she'd move if she ran to succeed Graves.
Greene’s own passion for conspiracy theories may also give her some unwelcome attention in her new race, though it remains to be seen how much this will actually hurt her in a GOP primary. In early October of 2017, four days after a lone terrorist named Stephen Paddock murdered 58 people at a concert in the deadliest mass-shooting in American history, Greene put out a video where she wondered if the attack was part of a government plot to try to pass anti-gun laws.
Greene asked, "Is that why the country music festival was targeted—because those would be the people that we would relate to? Are they trying to terrorize our mindset and change our minds on the Second Amendment?" She continued by saying she didn't believe Paddock acted alone and told her audience, "I know most of you don't, either."
Greene kept this up five months later when she shared a post on her Facebook page that accused the FBI of taking part in a cover-up and added, "Every American knows we have been lied to." Greene told the AJC in July of this year that she now accepts the official version of events and is satisfied that Paddock acted alone, and she insists she just "had questions and demanded answers." However, Greene's old Facebook post still remained up by the time the paper’s article was published on what is now her own campaign's fan page, though it was removed sometime over the following months.
What Greene does have, though, is money. Greene self-funded $500,000 earlier this year for her campaign for the 6th District, and she had about that much in the bank at the end of September. Greene will be able to use all of that cash for her campaign for the 14th District, while her primary foes will be starting from scratch.
Greene doesn’t have any primary foes at the moment, but that may change soon. State Sen. Jeff Mullis says he is interested in running here, and that he expects to announce his plans by Jan. 2. Mullis, who chairs the powerful Senate Rules Committee, has represented a seat in the Chickamauga area since 2001, and his constituency makes up a quarter of the 14th District.
There are several other Republicans who could campaign for this open seat, and the AJC namedrops former state Rep. Charlice Byrd and former Rep. Bob Barr as possibilities. There’s no word if either are interested, and Barr could have a tough time gaining traction if he is. Barr badly lost his primary for a fifth term in 2002 after redistricting pitted him against fellow GOP Rep. John Linder, and he went on to leave the GOP and run for president as the Libertarian Party’s 2008 nominee. Barr was a Republican again by 2014, but he lost the primary runoff for the neighboring 11th District by a 66-34 margin to now-Rep. Barry Loudermilk.
A few other Republicans seem unlikely to run for the 14th District. The Marietta Daily Journal reports that both state Rep. Eddie Lumsden and state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler "haven’t ruled out a bid but said they didn’t intend to run for the seat." The AJC also writes that state Sen. Chuck Payne has said that he won’t campaign here.