Greene Defiantly Rules Out a Senate Run in Georgia, to the Relief of G.O.P. Leaders

New York Times

10-05-2025

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said on Friday that she would not run for Senate in 2026.
The revelation — a huge relief to Republicans who feared she would challenge Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and jeopardize their chance at defeating him — came 1,200 words deep into a screed against her party that Ms. Greene posted on social media on Friday night.
In her tirade against the forces she blamed for standing in her way, Ms. Greene ripped the National Republican Senatorial Committee, G.O.P. consultants, pollsters, wealthy donors, the institution of the Senate and the Republican lawmakers who serve in it who she said 'sabotage Trump's agenda.'
'No, Jon Ossoff isn't the real problem,' Ms. Greene wrote in a post on X. 'He's just a vote. A pawn. No different than the Uniparty Republicans who skip key votes to attend fundraisers and let our agenda fail.'
She added: 'Someone once said, 'The Senate is where good ideas go to die.' They were right. That's why I'm not running.'
All eyes had tentatively turned to Ms. Greene this week after Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, the top potential recruit for the race, announced he would not run for the seat, a decision he made public at a gathering of wealthy donors in Sea Island, Ga.
Ms. Greene was a pariah within her party when she arrived in Congress in 2021 promoting conspiracy theories. But her popularity with the MAGA base has allowed her to rise and she now holds a gavel in the House. A close ally of President Trump's, Ms. Greene basically has tenure in her red district.
But she is also an ambitious politician who has been vocal about her desire to hold statewide office, a move that is difficult for a hard-right election denier from a purple state represented by two Democratic senators and a Republican governor who is popular because of his contentious relationship with Mr. Trump.
Ms. Greene, in contrast to Mr. Kemp, is a true believer in Mr. Trump's MAGA agenda. On Thursday, for instance, she spent her day on the House floor defending the merits of her bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, codifying Mr. Trump's 'America First' executive order.
In her Friday night post, Ms. Greene accused the 'elites' in her party of 'trying to carefully select someone who can dress up in MAGA just enough to trick the grass roots into thinking they're one of us — someone who won't dare challenge the Republican establishment or disrupt the status quo that has failed the people time and time again.'
She also implied that the Republican Senate campaign arm had discouraged her from running by disseminating polls showing that she would lose to Mr. Ossoff. (A recent poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed her trailing him by 17 points.)
'When I met with the N.R.S.C. a few weeks ago, they told me their internal polling shows any Republican can beat Ossoff,' Ms. Greene wrote. 'But now they're pushing a public poll of just 800 people claiming only certain Republicans can win. Funny how that works.'
A spokesman for the senatorial committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There are no Republican candidates in the race yet, but Mr. Ossoff is considered the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate and the race is expected to be highly competitive.
Ms. Greene appeared frustrated and angry at detractors in her own party.
'I won't fight for a team that refuses to win, that protects its weakest players, and that undermines the very people it's supposed to serve,' she wrote. 'To the elite retreaters, the consultants, and the establishment: consider this your warning.'