Georgia Republicans in civil war over Marjorie Taylor Greene

After losing centrist voters mainly in Atlanta suburbs, state politicians worry controversial congresswoman is becoming face of party

The Georgia Republican Party was already licking its wounds after the formerly solid red state elected two Democratic Senators in the 5 January runoff and voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992. Now a fight is brewing in the party over controversial Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

The state’s Republican election administrator Gabriel Sterling told Politico: “If you have any common sense, you know she's an anchor on the party. She is weighing us down."

Mr Sterling gained a large media presence in the aftermath of the election as he publicly battled conspiracy theories pushed by former President Donald Trump and subsequent threats from his supporters.

Ms Greene's position has if anything been strengthened in her northwest Georgia district because of her stint of scandals roiling the Republican Party. Videos have resurfaced of her berating school shooting survivor David Hogg, as well as social media posts in which she appears to support the execution of high profile Democrats such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Nearly 60,000 America First Patriots from all 50 states have reached out with messages of support and have poured over $1.6 million in small donations into my campaign account," Ms Greene said in a statement Friday.

She has also talked to former President Donald Trump, who was supportive of her. He has called her a “future Republican star".

After losing centrist voters mainly in the Atlanta suburbs, state Republicans are now worried that Ms Greene is becoming the face of the party, permanently scaring off moderate voters by imprinting conspiracy theories and extremism on the identity of the Republican Party in the minds of voters.

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Mr Sterling told Politico: “Some people are saying maybe Nancy Pelosi will throw her out. The Democrats would never throw her out. They want her to be the definition of what a Republican is. They’re gonna give her every opportunity to speak and be heard and look crazy, like what came out Wednesday, the Jewish space laser to start fires. I mean, I don't know how far down the rabbit hole you go.”

Mr Sterling was referring to the conspiracy theory that space lasers caused wildfires in California, a baseless idea apparently endorsed by Ms Greene on social media, where she has also backed the evidence-free concept that school shootings were faked. Her posts also suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be executed for treason.

Ms Greene said she was not responsible for all of the activity on her social media accounts.

She wrote: "Over the years, I've had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views."

In the 2022 midterms, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Governor Brian Kemp, and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan are all running for reelection along with Ms Greene. She is expected to play a huge role in the campaign after becoming notorious in national media after only having been in office since 3 January of this year.

All of the top three officeholders in the state are facing primary challengers, but Mr Raffensperger has become especially unpopular with Trump supporters as one of the most public defenders of Georgia's election integrity along with Mr Sterling. Mr Raffensperger secretly recorded a phone call with then-President Trump in which Mr Trump asked Mr Raffensperger to "find" just enough votes to overturn the Georgia presidential results in Mr Trump's favour.

Some Republicans worry that if they nominate candidates in the mould of Ms Greene, they may lose. An adviser to former Senator Kelly Loeffler, one of the losers in the 5 January runoffs, told Politico that Ms “Greene was just a symptom of what’s going on in the Republican Party in the state and, frankly, the nation, in our election. But in 2022, she’s going to be a symbol, assuming she’s not now already.”

Chip Lake, an adviser to former Georgia Representative Doug Collins, said: "She’s going to become Kemp’s problem and she has the potential to be a problem for all of us.”

Ms Greene's 2020 primary opponent John Cowan said: “I’m a neurosurgeon. I diagnose crazy every day. It took five minutes talking to her to realise there were bats in the attic. And then we saw she had skeletons in the closet.”

Several GOP county chairs expressed strong support for Ms Greene. Among them was Murray County GOP chair Tony Abernathy, who said: “The real story is we love Marjorie Taylor Greene and are tired of national media coming into Georgia trying to tell us how to think in her district.”

Brian Robinson, a former adviser to Nathan Deal who was the Governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019, told Politico that the problem with Ms Greene was that "You can’t look away. She has great camera presence. She has great TV presence. She’s a natural, a true talent. The question is whether she’s a moron who’s a natural talent or is she just a cynical manipulator?”