Challengers hope to unseat far-right House lawmaker
HIRAM, Ga. — In her pitch to voters, Jennifer Strahan introduces herself as a mother, a Christian and a conservative. She usually skips over the fellow Republican she hopes to topple later this spring: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
That’s because virtually everyone in this northwest Georgia congressional district already has an opinion about Taylor Greene, whose extreme rhetoric has left her stripped of committee assignments and her personal Twitter account permanently banned.
“You don’t always have to go around and tell people what she has done or said,” Strahan, the 35-year-old founder of a suburban Atlanta health care advisory firm, said in an interview. “That’s known.”
In her first term in Congress, Taylor Greene has emerged as one of the most prominent voices of the GOP’s far-right fringe, touting racist and antisemitic tropes, engaging in conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and embracing former President
Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen. As she seeks re-election promising more of the same, Strahan is among a small group of challengers during Georgia’s May 24 primary who argue they can deliver Republican values without the sideshow.
“I think people in this district are mostly tired of her crap,” Charles Lutin, 69, a retired physician and Air Force surgeon who is another Republican trying to unseat Taylor Greene, said.
Strahan is portraying herself as the conservative alternative to Taylor Greene without the drama. She promises to defend Trump’s policies and beat back the “radical left.”
Lutin, whose yard signs feature his name alongside a stethoscope, is more moderate. He calls himself “anti-Trumpist” and promotes less government spending. But he also advocates for higher taxes on the rich and embraces bipartisanship. Lutin is Jewish and objects to what he calls Taylor Greene’s “hate and blatant antisemitism,” including her comparison of House mask rules — which Taylor Greene has been fined repeatedly for violating — to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Distaste with Taylor Greene has also fueled donations for Democrats, with Army veteran Marcus Flowers raising $4.6plus million by the end of last year. Three other Democrats vying to face Taylor Greene collectively took in nearly $2 million.