President Donald Trump is concerned one of his most loyal foot soldiers would lose a statewide race in Georgia and is strategizing for which Republican he would back in next year's U.S. Senate primary.
The state's governor Brian Kemp will visit the White House to talk with the president about who would be the best GOP candidate to back for a chance to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), but sources told Axios that won't likely be MAGA firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
"The president loves MTG," said a Trump adviser. "He doesn't love her chances in a general."
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Recent polling shows Greene could easily win a GOP primary but lose to Ossoff, with one Republican group showing that she'd get "smoked" in the general election, according to a source who had reviewed those numbers.
"Greene has not ruled out a race, but those familiar with her thinking say she's aware of the perception that she could not win a general election," Axios reported. "They also note she's a more savvy operator than publicly perceived and knows how to read a poll."
Kemp and the president had a falling out after the 2020 election cycle, in which Trump and both GOP Senate candidates lost, but made peace last year, and both badly wants to win back those seats starting with Ossoff's.
"The president, like the governor, wants someone who can win," said a White House adviser.
MAGA Republican Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) has already announced he's running, but insiders say he's not a preferred candidate, and the president and Kemp will strongly consider longtime Trump adviser Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA), who has indicated he'd rather stay in the House but would run if Trump demands it.
They will also consider small business administrator Kelly Loeffler, who lost her Senate seat in a January 2021 special election to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), but an adviser said she'd prefer to run to replace Kemp as governor, and Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who sponsored the Laken Riley Act, could be considered the early favorite.
"He lines up on the Venn diagram," said a top Georgia Republican strategist. "He's at every [Trump] rally. He's a trucker, so he has a blue-collar business background and would be the firebrand, workhorse candidate."
