Greene Versus Green

Don't look now, but Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who exists only to piss off people in America, is discovering that her racist tirades are only empowering her challenger.

Friday’s deadline to report fundraising for the first three months of 2022 has given us more information to sift through in some of Georgia’s most contested federal races.

We have a bigger story on the Senate contest here, along with a takeout on the growing wave of spending. A closer look at the spending revealed a few other highlights:

• Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers outraised U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. He raised $2.4 million in the first three months of 2022. compared to her $1.1 million. And Greene spent about $300,000 more than she raised during the quarter. Still, she has $3 million in cash on hand, compared to Flowers’ $1.9 million. She has raised a total of $8.4 million for her reelection bid, while he’s raised about $7.1 million.
• Republican frontrunner Herschel Walker’s report included about $20,000 in small-dollar “anonymous” donations. The poultry company founder also reported collecting a $10,000 contribution from a Kentucky Fried Chicken political organization a few weeks after he delivered a speech at the group’s March convention.
• Walker’s got other plenty of other financial support beyond his first-quarter haul. The 34N22 PAC raised $3.25 million in the first three months of the year, spent about $440,000 and ended with about $3.3 million in its account.
• U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath continues to outfundraise fellow incumbent U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in the 7th District. McBath reported $804,497.21 in receipts during the quarter, ending it with $2.9 million in the bank. Bourdeaux raised $592,579 and had $2.1 million in cash on hand. The third Democrat in the race, state Rep. Donna McLeod, reported that she didn’t raise or spend anything -- not a penny -- during the first three months of 2022.
• We had early word last week that Rich McCormick raised more than $600,000 during the quarter and ended it with $1.1 million in the bank. Now we can say that he continues to lead the GOP candidates in the 6th District. Jake Evans raised $411,163.18 during the period, including a $200,000 loan from the candidate to the campaign. He does have a bit more than McCormick in cash on hand: $1.2 million. Former state Rep. Meagan Hanson collected $117,109.00 during the period, including the $50,000 she loaned to her campaign. She has $299,432 in cash on hand.

Among the campaign expenses U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reported for the last quarter was $10,000 to controversial California attorney John Eastman’s Constitutional Counsel Group, the Business Insider reports.

Eastman was at the center of efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results, pushing the idea that former Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to block Joe Biden’s certification as president.

The Business Insider reached out to Greene’s campaign about the payment, which was listed as unspecified “legal expenses.”

“Dr. Eastman is one of the leading constitutional attorneys in the country. When we need advice on significant constitutional issues, we have occasionally sought his counsel,” a campaign spokesperson said. “The particular issues for which we sought his advice are protected by attorney-client privilege, however.”

 

Here's the cold, hard reality of this race however:  

GA-14 is a R+28 district.

This is like Republicans raising funds to beat AOC in the Bronx or Yvette Clark in Brooklyn, and frankly, I'm upset that Marcus Flowers is raising this much money only to lose by 30 or 40 points in November. It's the same problem with Charles Booker here in KY running against Rand Paul.

 

Our vote matters, we can still win, but campaign money is not what's going to make the difference.

See, we didn't learn our lesson with Amy McGrath or Jaime Harrison or Sara Gideon. Throwing millions, sometimes tens of millions, at a race and outraising the Republican pain in the ass incumbent doesn't mean you'll win, and that money is better used to help out more winnable races. We were extremely lucky that we got a second shot at both of Georgia's Senate races and even luckier still to win them both.

And we won in Georgia because of Stacey Abrams and the best Democratic ground game in the country.

That is where the money needs to go, not to campaign coffers.

Vote like your country depends on it, because it does.