U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won her Northwest Georgia district Tuesday with 66% of the vote, but her margin in Chattanooga area counties was even more striking than in the 14th Congressional District as a whole.
Greene won Murray County with 84% of the vote and Dade with 80%.
Her victory over Democrat Marcus Flowers will return Greene for a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Efforts to reach Greene for comment were unsuccessful, but she discussed her victory and priorities on Steve Bannon's "War Room" broadcast Wednesday morning.
"I'm thankful that they elected me again and support me, because they know I represent them and our values," Greene said.
The congresswoman said she won despite redistricting that weakened her base of supporters, a well-funded opponent and attacks from the mainstream media.
According to opensecrets.org, the race attracted the most money of any House campaign in the nation. Greene raised nearly $12 million, and Flowers raised more than $15 million. Greene repeatedly made the point that Democrats who gave to Flowers probably should have contributed to other candidates, given the GOP's lopsided advantage in her district.
Greene said her victory spoke to the people in her district, her message and her resolve to not back down to pressure from the establishment in Washington.
"When I went to Washington the past two years, I voted, legislated and remained the same person my voters here in Georgia 14 sent to Washington," Greene said. "And I also took their voice with me. And I went across the country and continued to fight for what Americans believe and want out of their federal government."
Matthew Nave is the chairman of the Walker County Republican Party, and he worked on Greene's first campaign for Congress.
In a phone interview, he said he sees parallels between Greene and former President Donald Trump. They're both populists that appeal to rural voters, Nave said, and both were political outsiders who defeated a crowded field of establishment candidates. Greene's campaign was also similar to Trump's, Nave said, in that she skipped trying to woo the establishment and went directly to the voters.
In her first race, Greene spent $1 million of her own money, Nave said, to run a grassroots campaign focused on door knocking, signs and phone calls to voters. Focused on gun rights and defeating abortion, Nave said Greene was more similar to Trump than establishment Republicans like former President George W. Bush and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney -- and that's what the voters wanted.
District 14 voters re-elected her, Nave said, because she's still fighting for those issues.
"She gets a bad rap because people don't understand," Nave said. "People think that her district would reject her if they really knew her, but those people don't know her district."
Nave said Flowers didn't understand the district either. On a televised campaign event attended by both candidates, Nave said Flowers talked about unity and democracy without offering solutions to problems in the district. Flowers also side-stepped a question on abortion, Nave said, a response contrasted by Greene's clear position on the polarizing issue.
"She's straight to the point; that's another reason people like her up here," Nave said.
In his concession statement Tuesday night, Flowers said he ran to give the voters a choice.
"I respect the will of the people and American democracy," he said. "It remains worth fighting for."
In an email, Flowers' spokesman, Fred Wellman, said campaign officials are still unpacking the defeat. The campaign did better in the district than any other Democrat in a decade, he said, "but we would have liked to win."
(READ MORE: Ballot challenge for Marjorie Taylor Greene started in Walker County, Georgia)
John Turner is a retired schoolteacher whose passion in life is spreading friendship by promoting what he calls the Friendship Flag and his hometown of Summerville as a place that should be known by all as the Big Friendly. In a phone interview, Turner said he's independent politically and doesn't want to be controversial, but he was willing to talk about Greene.
"I sort of like her," Turner said. "I like colorful people, and not just run-of-the-mill mainstream people -- like Howard (Finster, a Summerville artist), who listen to the beat of their own drum."
Turner said he's a traditionalist -- like many rural Georgians and Greene. With modern life becoming crazy, a lot of people are falling back on their traditional values -- what Turner said are family, God, the American way and flag, he said.
Some people don't like Greene because she is tied in with ongoing election fraud claims from 2020, Turner said, and he said he sees both sides of that story. Greene is passionate about her beliefs, Turner said, and he can identify with that approach.
(READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene wins re-election in Republican-dominated Northwest Georgia)
Ken Gowin, mayor of Tunnel Hill, said he's an independent who votes for the person, not the party. Whitfield County is a heavily Republican county, and he said that's helpful to Greene. She has good ideas and is personable, but Gowin said in a phone interview that some people don't like Greene's style.
"Some people like the way she comes across, some people don't," Gowin said. "Some people are getting to the point where it's hard to chew ... She's a little bit overbearing, but it's not what she thinks, it's how she says it."
He said he doesn't know which issues connect Greene to 14th District voters, but he said she's a "go-getter" that has a style similar to Trump. Gowin said Flowers got more votes than a lot of people expected.
Greene came to visit Gowin recently, before her election event at the historic Tunnel Hill Depot. He said Greene was complimentary, especially about the fact that Tunnel Hill doesn't have a property tax -- giving residents more bang for their buck.
Gowin said he's never asked her for anything, partly because Greene doesn't have any power since she was stripped of her committee assignments and was a freshman last term. That may change if the Republicans take the majority in the House of Representatives, he said.
ELECTION RESULTS
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene won re-election in these Chattanooga area counties by large margins.
Murray County
Greene — 83.82% (9,519 votes)
Flowers — 16,18% (1,838 votes)
Dade County
Greene — 79.77% (4,574 votes)
Flowers — 20.23% (1,160 votes)
Gordon County
Greene — 78.81% (14,556 votes)
Flowers — 21.19% (3,914 votes)
Chattooga County
Greene — 77.29% (5,890 votes)
Flowers — 22.71% (1,731 votes)
Walker County
Greene — 76.23% (16,541 votes)
Flowers — 23.77% (5,158 votes)
Catoosa County
Greene — 74.68% (18,027 votes)
Flowers — 25.32% (6,113 votes)
Whitfield County
Greene — 69.94% (18,486 votes)
Flowers — 30.6% (7,994 votes)
Source: County elections offices
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.
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