President Donald Trump doesn’t think his MAGA cheerleader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has what it takes to win the Georgia Senate seat she’s eyeing.
The Georgia Congresswoman, who is weighing a run for Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff’s seat in 2026, declared on NewsNation Tuesday that she would triumph in the Republican primary.
But Trump—who carried Georgia by just over 2 points in the 2024 presidential election—appears to have doubts about her prospects in the swing state.
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“The president loves MTG. He doesn’t love her chances in a general,” a Trump adviser told Axios.
Polling suggests Greene would get trounced by Ossoff in a hypothetical matchup, trailing him by 11 points in a recent Trafalgar Group survey—though she would indeed pull ahead of other Republican contenders in a primary.
Greene’s brand of supercharged Trumpism, filled with viral antics and inflammatory statements, may resonate with the GOP’s MAGA base, but in a general election, Georgia voters remain skeptical.
“It’s possible that Greene could win a Republican primary,” Republican consultant Mark Rountree told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But it’s unlikely she could win a general election, and conservatives would once again have blown an opportunity to defeat Democrats in Georgia.”
Internal GOP polls haven’t been kind to Greene, with one person who saw the numbers telling Axios she got “smoked.”
She may still opt to run for governor—Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp cannot seek a third term in 2026—and she’s expressed equal confidence in her chances in that race.
The Republican primary for the Senate seat is wide open after Kemp, who drew Trump’s ire in 2020 by refusing to overturn the presidential election results and was seen as a frontrunner in the election, declined Monday to challenge Ossoff in 2026.
Kemp is expected to head to D.C. in the coming weeks to discuss with Trump which Republican candidate to back, Axios said. The president is eager to expand the GOP’s three-seat advantage in the Senate.
“The president, like the governor, wants someone who can win,” the Trump adviser reportedly said.
Republican Rep. Buddy Carter on Thursday became the first contender to announce his bid, but according to Axios, he’s not the candidate Trump and Kemp are looking for.
Kelly Loeffler, whom Trump appointed to lead the Small Business Administration in February, is another name being considered. She previously served as Georgia senator in 2020 until she was unseated by Democrat Raphael Warnock in a special election. In 2022, Warnock defeated former NFL player Herschel Walker to win a full six-year term as a Georgia Senator.
Other potential GOP candidates for Ossoff’s seat include Rep. Mike Collins—who sponsored the much-touted Laken Riley Act as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown, Rep. Brian Jack (previously a longtime Trump advisor), and Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.
