Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Northwest Georgia easily won re-election Tuesday over Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers.
Greene's 14th Congressional District stretches as far south as Cobb County, but some of her strongest margins of victory were in far Northwest Georgia, including Murray and Dade counties.
Voters in Northwest Georgia, reliably Republican for the most part, expressed frustrations with the nation and its politics on election day.
After he voted, John Tate said he feels like the country has gone in the wrong direction over the past few years. Specifically, he mentioned that the price of everything has increased -- and that basic truths have been abandoned.
"Up is down and down is up, and we just need to get back to common sense ideas," Tate said outside the Fort Oglethorpe voting precinct.
Tate said he's not a person who always supports the same party but instead votes for whichever party represents his values and what he believes at that time.
Republican Herschel Walker is not a Georgia U.S. Senate candidate he's really for, but because incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock has been a crucial Democratic vote in the Senate on some issues he doesn't agree with, Tate said he had to go with the former University of Georgia football star.
(READ MORE: Early voting strong statewide in Georgia; Northwest Georgia lags that trend)
"It's never a perfect choice, and sometimes it's having to vote against the other person," Tate said.
The race between Walker and Warnock appeared tight heading into Election Day, while polls showed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp with a lead over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their 2018 race.
When asked what motivated her to vote Tuesday, Tyra Bell said it was that she caught COVID-related pneumonia and hasn't been able to vote recently. On a ventilator for six weeks and oxygen now, she said it's taken her a year to recuperate.
"I felt it was my duty to come vote," Bell said at the Lakeview precinct.
On top of it all, she recently broke her foot with her oxygen tank trying to bathe her dog.
Bell said the important issue to her is that the nation's southern border needs to be closed to illegal immigration so the United States can reform its legal immigration system.
Mutual respect and cooperation between Republicans and Democrats is another hope for this election, Bell said. She said she hopes the nation votes Republican on Tuesday, but mostly, Bell said she just wants the country to prosper.
Meanwhile, Rossville resident Sara Salazar said at the Lakeview voting precinct that "if you don't vote, you really don't have a voice."
Regardless of party support, she said it's important to be civil when discussing politics. The choice between Greene or Flowers, and Walker or Warnock, was a hard choice, but Salazar said she had to cho0se "the lesser of two evils."
Salazar's father, who has since died, only voted for Democrats after feeling betrayed by Republican Richard Nixon. But Salazar said she makes a decision based on the candidate and issue.
Andrew Edwards voted early but was walking his dog, Mato, by the Lakeview voting precinct in Rossville. He was willing to talk about the motivation behind his election choices.
(READ MORE: Kemp, Abrams argue abortion, voting in Ga. governor debate)
Kemp did a good job, he said, and Raffensperger did, too, Edwards said, even though he usually votes for Democrats. Edwards credited Raffensperger for standing up to Donald Trump when the former president pressured Raffensperger to find enough votes to allow Trump to win Georgia in the 2020 election.
"I didn't vote for Herschel Walker because I didn't think he was up to the task," Edwards said.
He also thinks Walker is a hypocrite because, as an abortion opponent accused by two women of impregnating them and then facilitating their abortions.
Edwards didn't vote for Greene either because he said she isn't working for the people in her district. Greene could not be reached before deadline.
(READ MORE: Greene, Flowers spar over who best reflects 14th District voters)
Edwards encouraged everyone to vote this election.
"Some people say it might not matter," he said, "but there's a simple argument to that: what if it does?"
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.