POLITICO reported in June that Greene had posted hours on Facebook videos where she made a trove of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic remarks – including a claim that Black people “are being held slaves for the Democratic Party,” and that George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, is a Nazi.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in June – through his spokesman, Drew Florio – that he found those comments “terrible” and that he “had no tolerance for them.” But Florio said last week that the California Republican will remain neutral and stay out of the primary process – an attitude that probably does not signal urgency to donors or outside groups.
“This is the kind of race and kind of situation where you need those groups,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Who actively supports Cowan. “So often they are only involved when they have someone they are trying to get in. But I think it’s just as important that they participate as there is someone they are trying to get out.”
The lack of intervention by national Republicans – despite their public outcry from Greene – has frustrated and confusing GOP legislators, strategists and donors, who are worried that Greene’s victory would be a black eye for the party at a time when they are still struggling with a national bill. about racial inequality.
And it would reduce the impact of the party’s successful efforts in June to GOP rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a member with a long history of racist remarks. If Greene, a vocal QAnon conspiracy theorist and enterprising woman, deserves the party’s nomination in the deeply conservative neighborhood in northwest Georgia, she’s almost guaranteed to win a seat in the House.
“I was very involved in the John Cowan race. I have driven House leadership to get involved, without success, ‘added one GOP legislator, who was given anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.
McCarthy’s reluctance – which could face a leadership challenge when Trump comes down in November – to run for office underscores the tough position in which leadership is: While they want the party to distance itself from the deeply controversial views expressed by Greene proposed, the conservative conservatives do not want to earn hard which is an important part of Trump’s base in the election.
And it’s not just Greene’s race that has haunted House GOP operatives. The primary runoff field for Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) Neighbors open seat includes state Rep. Matt Gurtler, who came under fire after posting for a photo of a man with white supremacist ties. But that race, which is also on Tuesday, has seen a rush of mountaineering from outside by several PACs.
GOP leadership and the party’s campaign arm usually do not play in primaries, and it can be risky to take a shot at another Republican and miss: GOP Conference President Liz Cheney (Wyo.) Recently came under fire of some House Freedom Caucus members and other Trump allies for supporting a primary opponent of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Among other remarks that riled Trump’s most loyal House-foot soldiers. Cheney – who was one of the most outspoken Republicans in calling for King to resign – later withdrew her distinction from Massie’s primary opponent after the candidate’s past racist tweets resurfaced.
When it comes to the matchup between Greene and Cowan, GOP lawmakers and strategists believe that help from outside the scales could easily tip. While Greene won the first round of the primary in June by a wide margin of 19 points, the race has drastically picked up in the following weeks: An internal Cowan campaign survey in late July found an allied race between him and Greene.
Plus, Cowan has turned Greene on TV by about $ 50,000, according to a media tracking source, and outraised her by almost a margin of four to one in July, signs pointing to a well-executed campaign.
In an interview, Cowan framed the outcome of the runoff in difficult terms, warning that a victory by Green Republican candidates would jeopardize those who would have to answer for their comments up and down the vote in Georgia, from the battlefields of the House in suburban Atlanta after the two First Chamber contests on the November ballot.
“I want to win this race,” he said. ‘But more than that, I want to protect the Republican Party. She is the antithesis of the Republican Party. And she’s just conservative – she’s crazy. ”
And he warned that Democrats could use their comments to raise funds for their candidates. ‘She deserves a YouTube channel, not a seat in Congress. She’s a circus act, ‘Cowan said.
Greene’s campaign did not respond to a request to interview the candidate for this story. Throughout the campaign, she has cast Cowan as insufficiently supportive of Trump because he has donated to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the 2016 race. She also accused him of misrepresenting his role as a reserve replacement in the Floyd County Sheriff’s office.
Despite the highly racist Facebook videos revealed by POLITICO, Greene still has some high-profile support in Washington: She is supported by the House Freedom Fund, the political arm of the Freedom Caucus; Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a top Trump ally; and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his wife, Debbie Meadows. When the quoter of the seat, rep. Tom Graves, announcing his retirement, encouraged the Freedom Caucus Greene to leave her run in the competitive 6th District, where former GOP Rep. Karen Handel made a comeback bid, and ran for the open seat, which was more conservative, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Greene said in a recent interview with a local news station that she and McCarthy have spoken “several times” since the POLITICO story was published, and they have a “great relationship.” She also claimed that McCarthy’s statement of condemnation – which was spread by an employee – was simply a ‘miscommunication’.
McCarthy’s spokesman confirmed that he had “spoken on the phone several times in the past few weeks with both Greene and Cowan” and “had a good and productive relationship with both”, but did not comment on the truth of Greene’s statement. .
Cowan described his communication with McCarthy as a “good conversation,” according to Carter. “Well, what happened next, I do not know,” Carter added.
But as Cowan expected the cavalry, it never came.
In the absence of national intervention, a dozen members have worked together to promote Cowan through public endorsements, make calls for his name or attend his Zoom campaign events. That group includes Scalise, Carter and reps. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Rick Allen (R-Ga.), Greg Murphy (RN.C.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), James Comer (R-Ky.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) And Mark Walker (RN. C.).
“John Cowan is a great candidate,” Carter said, “but we are also very concerned about the other candidate. … And sure, I do not want anyone to make that kind of remark at my conference.”
Scalise, who immediately supported Cowan after Greene’s previous remarks – which he called “disgusting” – came to light at the end of July at a virtual lender for Cowan. But no help has come in the form of large expenditures outside.
Walker, a former pastor who is retiring this year after court-ordered redistricting transformed his seat into secure Democratic territory, successfully defeated the Conservative Club for Growth, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Club considered playing in the race and polled, but eventually refused to support Cowan as to climb. (However, it makes a big investment in the primary runoff in the 9th District of Georgia for Gurtler.)
A new super PAC, called A Great America PAC, was formed in June, and operatives behind the group cut out a TV ad that erupted in Greene as a threat to Trump’s reelection. The group reported spending $ 30,000 on media production – but only reserved about $ 17,000 on a cable purchase, according to media buying sources.
Republicans in DC and Georgia attribute some of the lack of spending to grim politics environment. Donors are too distracted by Trump’s flirtatious question numbers and the precarious Senate majority to pay attention to a primary runoff for a Congress for a deep-red seat – especially since it seems more and more not likely Republicans will repay the majority, and McCarthy has not publicly signaled that Greene should be stopped.
Some House Republicans are angry at the Freedom Caucus for encouraging Greene’s candidacy in the first place and think the group should have withdrawn its distinction. Only rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) Publicly withdrew his appeal; Jordan said in a brief statement that he did not agree with her comments.
If Greene wins, she could create a constant stream of headaches – and controversy – for the House GOP. Republican leaders had to strip King of his commission duties and formally repent on the floor of the House after he defended white supremacy and white nationalism in an interview with The New York Times last year.
Democrats are ready to speak out on a Greene victory and joking their controversial statements to Republican House candidates across the country – in particular Handel and Republican Rich McCormick, who is running in an open battlefield seat in Atlanta – suburbs. McCormick’s wife donated to Greene when she was still in the 6th District running against Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.).
“Marjorie Taylor Greene is an extreme, far – right voice engaged and embraced by Georgia Republicans like Karen Handel and Rich McCormick and her views have no place in Congress,” DCVC spokeswoman Avery Jaffe said in a statement. “Republicans of Georgia, and Republican candidates running across the country, will have to answer for their hateful views in their own campaigns.”
And Greene already signals that she has no interest in playing nicely with her potential future colleagues, doubling down on some of her most controversial comments and concluding with Scalise and Cheney in their recent interview with a local news station.
“Steve Scalise, I was very surprised, especially since he was called a racist in the past and things like that,” said Greene, an apparent reference to the Louisiana Republican’s 2002 speech to a white supremacist group. ‘Liz Cheney, I’ve never met or talked to her before. I think it was unfortunate that they were put under pressure, probably pressured to say this, perhaps by people in the media, to make statements about me and they simply had not yet learned about me. “
