'Our tent’s not this big': GOP senators scoff at potential MTG Senate run

WASHINGTON — A groundswell of support is one thing in politics, a sinkhole of opposition quite another.

Now that popular two-term Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) bowed out of his state’s 2026 Senate contest, whispers of a potential run from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are abounding in political circles.

They’re also being laughed off by many Senate Republicans.

“Being a conservative icon in a gerrymandered congressional district in Georgia is not the same thing as appealing to the diversity of the entire state,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Raw Story. “We've been hurt by bad candidates.”

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Republican leaders in the House of Representatives may have created a new panel — the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency — for Greene to chair in this 119th Congress, but the Senate’s a different universe.

And, as of now, even Republican senators are balking at the notion of the congresswoman known as "MTG" joining them in the austere, if diminished, U.S. Senate.

“You’ll have to ask others”

Breaking House rules by rocking MAGA caps during State of the Union addresses may rake in untold millions of dollars in donations to the giddily rabble rousing congresswoman, but it's written off as antics by many on the Senate side of the Capitol.

“Curious,” Raw Story asked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “Do you think Marjorie Taylor Greene would be a good Senate candidate in Georgia?”

A few seconds of hearty laughter ensued from Texas’s junior senator.

“That's a question for the voters of Georgia to decide,” a still-smiling Cruz told Raw Story.

It’s a good thing Georgia voters will get to weigh in, because many Republican senators refuse to.

“You’ll have to ask others,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “I really don't opine on that stuff. I don't endorse candidates. I just kind of stay out of that stuff.”

Johnson’s not alone.

“What would you make of ‘Senator MTG’?” Raw Story asked Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). “Do you think that would be good for the party?”

“I don't know,” Hawley told Raw Story. “I don't know Georgia politics well enough.”

“But you guys really want those seats?”

“Yeah,” Hawley said. “We need that seat.”

Democrats need that seat, too.

“She clearly has a belief”

Just last month, incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) broke a record by hauling in upwards of $11 million in the first quarter of a non-election year, according to his campaign. But that’s more than a year and a half out of the 2026 midterms.

The number also pales in comparison to his 2020 election haul, where both Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) pulled in more than $100 million ahead of their respective runoffs in January 2021.

“Do you think your party would have an easier shot in Georgia against Marjorie Taylor Greene than others?” Raw Story asked Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).

“I think Jon Ossoff’s going to do well regardless of who they have,” Peters, who recently chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told Raw Story. “He's a real strong candidate.”

Some Republicans are still smarting over their party’s 2022 Senate candidate in Georgia. Even though former Heisman Trophy winner Hershel Walker maintains godlike status throughout the college football-intoxicated state, his gaffes and personal history ultimately made him untenable to general election voters. Twice.

“Do you think Warnock was helped by facing Herschel Walker?” Raw Story pressed Peters.

“Was he helped? Well, it was easy to paint a contrast with Walker,” Peters said. “And that's what you want to do in these Senate races, is localize them to the state and then paint a contrast between the two candidates. So certainly, when you're running against someone like him, you could do that.”

Painting that contrast has been key for Democrats in the past, but — even contrary to recently plummeting poll numbers — some Republicans are banking on their new Trumpian brand winning the day in 2026.

Those Republicans argue even Greene can win in this environment.

“I don't know her well. I've been around her some, and she, I mean, I think she's a hard worker,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story. “She clearly has a belief. And she's not — she's opinionated.”

“But would it make you nervous?” Raw Story pressed. “Some people argue you guys could have won that seat against Warnock if you had a stronger candidate than Herschel Walker.”

“I think we're gonna win. I think we're gonna get a good candidate, and we're gonna win,” Scott said. “You know how you become a good — a strong — candidate? You win.”

“Our tent’s not this big”

Greene may have millions of social media followers and fundraising circles around many more senior Republicans, but antics that work in the House often ring hollow in statewide contests.

“It's hard for me to imagine — I don't know Georgia that well — but it's hard for me to imagine she’d be the best candidate we could put out,” Republican Senator Cramer — who represented North Dakota for three terms in the House before moving to the Senate in 2019 — said.

Cramer may not know Greene personally, but she’s made an impact on the kindly midwesterner.

“I wrote an op-ed about her…back when she was making all those crazy claims about alien Jews lighting fires with lasers,” Cramer said through a laugh. “And the basic thrust of my op-ed was: Our tent’s not this big.”

If anything, Cramer wants party leaders — from the White House to Senate GOP leaders — to ask themselves why more middle-of-the-road Republicans are bowing out of vital 2026 midterm contests nationwide.

“We're in a Senate cycle where people like Brian Kemp (R-GA) and John Sununu (R-NH) — I might even throw in a guy like, what's his name, Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), in Minnesota — where some people like that would give us a chance to expand our majority in the Senate,” Cramer told Raw Story. “If we can't appeal to their patriotism to run, we’re missing opportunities.”