Republicans are searching for a 2026 Senate candidate in Georgia who is not Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced this week he will not run against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff next year, opening up the primary field to a dozen potential candidate who have so far expressed interest—including Greene.
The conspiracy theorist and MAGA diehard is seriously considering a run, according to NBC News, telling reporters outside the Capitol on Tuesday she is “weighing” her options after Kemp waved the white flag.
“The polling shows I can win the governor’s primary or I can win the Senate primary or I can also continue to represent my district,” she told NewsNation on Monday, adding that she hasn’t set a timeline for her decision.
Republican strategists told NBC it was likely true the congresswoman could win a primary but that many in the GOP worry she’s too polarizing to prevail in a statewide general election in a purple state like Georgia.
Both of the state’s current senators are Democrats, and Kemp has remained popular in part by maintaining some distance from President Donald Trump and refusing to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
But Trump won the state in 2024 with 50.7 percent of the vote, and Republicans view the 2026 election as a key opportunity to expand their three-seat Senate majority. (The other seat currently held by a Democrat that will be up for grabs in a state Trump carried is in Michigan, where Sen. Gary Peters is retiring.)
Kemp had been seen as a top contender to take on Ossoff, but with the economy struggling and Trump’s approval ratings falling, he has decided not to run in 2026, even though his second and final term as governor will be ending.
“I spoke with President Trump and Senate leadership earlier today and expressed my commitment to work alongside them to ensure we have a strong Republican nominee who can win next November, and ultimately be a conservative voice in the US Senate who will put hardworking Georgians first,” he said in a statement Monday.
His candidacy would have all but ended the Republican primary, but now strategists are worried about the pitfalls of a crowded field, according to NBC.
They’re hoping Kemp and Trump will create a clear frontrunner by endorsing the same candidate—something that could be difficult given Trump’s history of double-endorsing and rewarding loyalty at all costs.
One political operative told NBC there was a risk that Greene could become “Kari Lake 2.0,” a reference to another MAGA loyalist whom Trump has repeatedly backed but who lost the Arizona governor’s race in 2022 and a Senate race in 2024.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune also avoided saying this week whether he thought Greene could win a general election.
“We believe Georgia is going to be competitive,” he said Tuesday. “I have no idea who the Republican nominee would be at this point, but as I said earlier, I’m encouraged by the fact there’s lot of interested Republicans in Georgia, both sitting House members and some statewide officials, who are taking a hard look at the race, and we’ll see how it all shakes out.”