Greene passes on Senate run against Ossoff in Georgia

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced Friday that she will not jump into Georgia’s 2026 Senate race and challenge incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). 

The Georgia Republican firebrand, who was elected to Congress in 2020, slammed the Senate, arguing that not much gets done in the upper chamber and that donors hold too much sway in decision-making. 

“Even with a few good Republicans in the Senate, nothing changes. So no, Jon Ossoff isn’t the real problem. 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,” Greene said in a lengthy post on the social media platform X. 

“Someone once said, ‘The Senate is where good ideas go to die.’ They were right. That’s why I’m not running. 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,” the Republican lawmaker wrote. 

Greene has looked at either running for Senate or the governor’s seat. She expressed confidence that she could win the GOP Senate primary and ultimately prevail in the general election in the Friday post. 

“Yes, I’m competitive. Yes, I love to win. And yes, I know I would win both the primary and the general. I’d enjoy proving the elites wrong every single day. But that’s not what motivates me. It’s not about crushing the establishment again or flipping a seat just to help the Republican Party,” Greene wrote. “It’s about the job itself.” 

Greene’s decision to pass on a run came less than a week after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), whom GOP senators privately lobbied to jump in the race, also announced that he will forgo a bid to potentially unseat Ossoff. 

Georgia was one of the seven toss-up states that President Trump won in the 2024 presidential election. Former President Biden narrowly won the Peach State in 2020. 

Ossoff is a top target for Senate Republicans in 2026. The first-term senator won his seat by a slim margin, and the general election next year is expected to be one of the most expensive in the country. 

So far, Republicans have one candidate in the primary, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), while several other officeholders have expressed interest in jumping in.