DALTON — During Thursday night’s Northwest Georgia congressional forum, candidate Marty Brown of Tunnel Hill, in his closing statement, dropped out of the race.
Brown endorsed former state Sen. Colton Moore in the special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Brown announced his intention to run for the Georgia state Senate seat held by Chuck Payne, R-Dalton.
“I believe it’s the right one for our community and state,” Brown said about his decision to withdraw and run for state Senate.
He said he had been approached by constituents who were interested in voting him into a state office.
With his background in emergency services as both a firefighter and paramedic, Brown would like to use that experience to better health care and reduce crime, and he would also like to improve education in the state, he said in an interview last month.
Payne was first sworn into office in January 2017. He has repeatedly beaten Republican primary opponents since first being elected, largely running unopposed in the general election with the exception of the 2018 race, in which he won 79.7% of the vote against Democrat Michael Morgan, according to Ballotpedia. In the last election for state Senate in 2024, Payne ran unopposed in the Republican primary for the first time.
Brown endorsed Moore, who is from Trenton. It was not a decision he took lightly, he said. He met with GOP leaders and Moore’s campaign team before making the decision.
“He’s got a good, strong campaign team going behind him, and he is more of a grassroots guy,” Brown said by phone. “He’s not the big establishment, Washington-insider-politics type of people.”
(READ MORE: Colton Moore garners Gaetz, Rittenhouse endorsements on congressional campaign trail)
Before resigning to run for Congress, Moore was the state senator for District 53, which includes Dade, Walker, Catoosa and Chattooga counties in Northwest Georgia, as well as the northern section of Floyd County.
There are 14 Republican candidates left in the open ballot special election taking place on March 10. Along with Brown, Christian Hurd of Rocky Face dropped out of the race to run in the state House race for District 2. Jared Craig from Newnan withdrew last week. Both Hurd and Newnan endorsed Clay Fuller, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Contact Northwest Georgia reporter Ignacio Perez at iperez@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6710.