On a smashing first day of early voting in Georgia, which included visits to a small restaurant, a construction company, a textile factory and a polling station in her district, US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke to supporters and answered questions from local and national media .
The day started early at Linda’s Place in Rockmart, Georgia. After a brief greeting to the crowd and a coffee run, Greene moved from table to table until her campaign staff pushed her forward to answer questions.
“But I like going from table to table,” Greene said, laughing out loud laughter from the crowd of over 100. “Because I genuinely enjoy fellowship with all of you and hearing your feedback at home, it just fills me back and supports everything I think and say. It tells me I’m doing the right thing because you’re reciprocating the things I say in Washington. I just want you to know how important this is to me.”
Speaking about immigration and the toll it takes on US Customs and Border Protection officials, Greene told the crowd she was at the border in Eagle Pass, Texas just last week. She also said that if the Republicans retake the House of Representatives, she wants all House committees to focus on investigations.
(READ MORE: Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers passed Marjorie Taylor Greene in the first quarter of 2022)
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Georgia US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tours the district
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But first, she said, she had to ask voters if they would send her back to Washington. The crowd responded with an enthusiastic yes. Next, she asked if they should investigate Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. More cheers. How about an investigation by Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, she asked. The crowd cheered again.
After Greene gathered the crowd, Rockmart resident and supporter Frank Shelley spoke briefly to Greene as she passed his table. He said he wanted to thank her for her work and hear what she had to say.
“I’m proud that someone is willing to stand up and say the things she does and believe the way she does it under the pressure that she’s under,” Shelley said. When asked which issues were important to him, he said the country was so divided and those who stood for what was right were “ridiculed” and “ostracised”.
The next stop was at a family business, Evans Construction Co. Kevin Evans runs the company but said he still has lunch with his father Donald every day to get a glimpse of the business that the elder Evans ended up having founded in the 1970s.
In his office, Kevin Evans told Greene that high gas prices are hurting his family’s business, as is the difficulty in finding truck drivers. Kevin Evans said the nearby paper mill – which used to be the best place to work in Rome, Georgia – had a job fair a year ago and not a single person came. Back at the warehouse, Donald agreed that young people don’t want to work and “would rather be hacking away at that computer all day.”
Greene voted early at the John Horace Anthony Recreation Center in Rome. The primary will be held on May 24, with a runoff, if necessary, on June 21 and a general election on November 8.
Greene faces a number of Republican and Democratic challengers.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene is losing Republican support across Georgia, and she’s scared,” one of the Democratic nominees, Marcus Flowers, said on social media Sunday. “Rep. Greene is beatable and I’ll be the one to take her down.”
When asked by a reporter what her re-election priorities were, Greene said strengthening the US southern border.
In response to another media question about who she would support for Georgia governor, the congresswoman said she would remain neutral and keep her vote private.
Greene was relieved of all committee mandates in Congress last year over his social media activities, which have been criticized as conspiratorial and even violent. The action was taken by Democrats who control the House of Representatives.
A reporter asked them which Democrats should be relieved of their committee seats if Republicans take control of the House this fall. Greene recommended Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, be removed from the committees for his association with a “Chinese spy.” Swalwell has said he did not know the woman was a spy and he cut ties after being informed by intelligence agencies. Greene also said Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, should be removed from the committees, but gave no reason.
What did she think of the criticism that people liked her politics but not her outspoken style? Greene said people like her because she’s unwilling to compromise her values.
“Those are the things that need to be said,” Greene said. “That’s how people feel across America. And sadly, rural America and most Americans have been without a voice for a very long time.”
Several Walker County residents have challenged Greene’s inclusion on the ballot, citing a Civil War-era statute that bans insurgents from holding office. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, on Sunday criticized Greene’s testimony in the court case.
“When Marjorie Taylor Greene is confronted, she’s suddenly a victim and a poor, helpless congresswoman just trying to do her job,” he said. “That’s crazy.”
In downtown Rome on Monday, Greene was asked about the legal challenge by a reporter. She said the claim that she was an insurgent was not true.
“That’s the narrative being pushed in Washington, DC by the same people who don’t give a damn about the riots across the country in 2020,” Greene said. “They cheered these on, they funded them, they rescued rioters and they called these mostly peaceful protests.”
(READ MORE: Ballot challenge for Marjorie Taylor Greene began in Walker County, Georgia)
When asked by the Chattanooga Times Free Press about the US role in the war in Ukraine, Greene said it is always the people who suffer most in war. Wrong decisions had been made on the front end, she said, including the US withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Biden administration declaring that the nation would not go to war with Russia and would stand by its NATO allies — knowing that Ukraine is not part of this European defense alliance.
“The failure in Afghanistan gave the whole world the wrong signal that America is weak,” she said. “We armed the Taliban, we left and killed 13 soldiers. That was awful, awful.
Sanctions on Russia are causing starvation and rising energy prices, and providing arms and support to Ukraine would only prolong the war, she said. Americans are sick of nearly 20 years of war in the Middle East — “these are things we don’t want to get involved in,” Greene said.
(READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene tries to defeat legal challenge to her candidacy)
Greene politely answered provocative questions from reporters throughout the day. But she said the mainstream media isn’t just attacking her, they’re attacking the people she represents.
“Most people are just fed up with it. You’ve seen this done to other people, like President Trump and others before him,” Greene said. “It’s unfortunate, it really discredits the media because people see through it. The good thing is that the people here at home know exactly who I am, they know that I care about our families and our values.”
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.
