Marjorie Taylor Greene discloses her decision on running against the current Democrat in the Georgia Senate race

Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she will not be challenging Democrat Jon Ossoff in the upcoming midterms in Georgia. She also cautioned Ossoff against using her for fundraising purposes, emphasizing that she will not be running against him.

In a detailed message shared on the social media platform X, Greene addressed concerns from GOP donors and consultants who worried that her candidacy might alienate moderate Republicans and independents crucial for defeating Ossoff.

Greene clarified that her decision not to run against Ossoff stemmed from her reluctance to be part of a Senate that she believes is unproductive and controlled by lawmakers who are unfriendly to grassroots supporters of Trump and resistant to making any significant changes.

‘If I´m going to fight for a team, it will only be a team willing to lay it all on the line to save this country,’ she wrote.

Ossoff, a first-term senator, won the seat by a slim margin in a state that has historically been a Republican stronghold but has more recently become a battleground. 

He is a top target for Republicans looking to expand their narrow Senate majority.

Popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who could be a formidable opponent for Ossoff, opted out of the 2026 race on Monday. 

His decision leaves a wide-open race for the GOP nomination.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents a district on the Georgia coast, became the first major Republican candidate to declare Thursday.

Six other GOP officeholders besides Greene have acknowledged interest in running. 

They include two other Republicans in the U.S. House, Mike Collins and Rich McCormick. 

Also considering the race are Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, state Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, state Insurance Commissioner John King and state Sen. Greg Dolezal.

‘I expect a competitive primary – Senate seats don´t come along that often,’ said Eric Tanenblatt, a top national GOP fundraiser and Kemp ally who has backed Trump´s rivals in presidential primaries.

Greene is nationally known and a prolific fundraiser, but she has embraced conspiracy theories and feuded with members of her own party. 

On Thursday, she noted to reporters that she has more than 11 million social media followers, saying that’s because people know where she stands.

Greene’s appeal would be clear in a GOP primary with many voters fiercely loyal to the president. 

Her decision not to run came a day after she told reporters she was considering it.

‘I´m going to give it some thought, talk to my family. I´m honored to have so much support from the great people of Georgia. And I have options,’ she said Thursday.

It comes during a period of time where Greene has expressed ambivalence at best toward the party’s establishment.

She told Steve Bannon on Monday that ‘there is no wedge between the base and President Trump. The wedge is between Congress, and the establishment Republicans that are undermining the president’s agenda.’

Greene said that the country mandated President Trump’s agenda and not either the Democrats or the ‘old Republican Party ways’ when they elected him in November. 

‘We are embracing Make America Great Again, MAGA, America First, MAHA, no more foreign wars. This whole populist movement supporting America, and American workers, and American companies, and American interests, and solving American problems,’ she said.

Green describes a Washington that is ‘as usual, tone deaf and has not heard the message’ which she said was a huge problem with the GOP during Trump’s first term.   

‘Networks, even like Fox News, that did not support the president, and didn’t support him in 2021 and 2022, part of 2023, and didn’t support him until they realized they had to support him,’ she said.

The firebrand conservative adds that she’s credible to the Republican base because she won an election before Trump ever endorsed her.  

‘Never forget, I got here on my own with the people. I didn’t get elected with the president’s endorsement. I’m here because I genuinely believe and I’m fighting for what I believe in,’ she said.

Green explains that because of that, people in Washington ‘better pay attention’ as she’s an early bellwether of where the base is going.  

‘And here’s the issue, Steve, is they think they can manipulate the president, but you can’t manipulate the base. You can’t manipulate the base,’ she told to Bannon.

Greene was first elected to the House in 2020. She initially planned to run in a competitive district in northern Atlanta´s suburbs, but relocated into the much more conservative 14th District in Georgia´s northwest corner.

She continued to embrace conspiracies even after 11 House Republicans joined Democrats to remove her committee assignments in February 2021. 

She embraced people jailed on charges following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol as political prisoners, part of her campaign to reframe the narrative of the attack and cast Democrats, not Republicans, as a party of violence.

She was welcomed back into the mainstream of the Republican conference by Kevin McCarthy, who forged an alliance with her. 

But Greene kept feuding with Republicans and Democrats alike. The House Freedom Caucus expelled Greene in 2023.