Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Challenger Jennifer Strahan Courts Business Leaders
DALTON, Ga.—The top Republican challenger to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) in next month’s party primary stood before Dalton’s business leaders to try to draw a contrast with the incumbent and win their support. “Georgia deserves a serious representative,” Jennifer Strahan, a healthcare executive, said to the crowd at Cyra’s restaurant. “It’s about public service. It’s not about being a social media celebrity. It’s not about chasing clicks, or chasing likes.” In the district, the center of the U.S. carpet and flooring industry, many voters embrace Mrs. Greene’s provocative style, as well as her skepticism of vaccines and her false assertions that the 2020 election was fraudulent. But some Republicans, led by the business community, are turning to Mrs. Strahan as a long-shot but plausible alternative to the well-known and deep-pocketed Mrs. Greene, frustrated by what they see as a lack of attention by the lawmaker to the district’s needs.
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But Mrs. Greene’s approach could also limit her effectiveness as a lawmaker. About a month into her term, House Democrats, joined by 11 Republicans, stripped her of committee assignments after more details of her past embrace of QAnon and other conspiracy theories emerged. That removed her from the process of crafting legislation at the committee level and joining hearings.
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Limited polling shows Mrs. Greene in a strong position headed into the May 24 primary, open to voters of any party, and a candidate must win 50% plus one vote to win outright and avoid a runoff. Mrs. Greene has raised $8.4 million for her own campaign this cycle, putting her in the top 10 of all House lawmakers, federal data show. Mrs. Greene has spent more on postage and delivery than the $322,625 that Mrs. Strahan has raised in the entire campaign through March, though Mrs. Strahan’s efforts will be supplemented by ViewPac, a super PAC that promotes what it terms viable and serious Republican women, which has booked $200,000 in digital ads backing her. Other Republicans in the race have raised far less. Democrat Marcus Flowers has raised $7 million fueled by Democrats nationwide eager to take down Mrs. Greene. If he wins his party’s primary, he is seen as facing an uphill battle in November’s general election in the heavily GOP district.
Critics in the business community say Mrs. Greene hasn’t effectively pushed for local interests on issues such as infrastructure and trade. More than 85% of U.S. carpet and rug output is produced by mills within a 65-mile radius of Dalton, producing an estimated $8 billion in economic activity, according to the Carpet and Rug Institute trade association. “Our current congresswoman is not really paying attention to our issues,” said Harlan Stone, the chief executive of HMTX Industries, a vinyl flooring importer with warehousing and other operations in the district. Mr. Stone said the business suffered when the process for excluding some products from Trump administration-era tariffs on China expired in 2020. Now, the CEO is focused on a tariff-related provision in a pending U.S.-China competitiveness bill. Mrs. Greene has never met with him or his managers, he said, a contrast with the Republican who previously held the seat, Rep. Tom Graves, who declined to run two years ago. Mr. Stone donated to Mrs. Strahan’s campaign last month.
Many business leaders also supported Mr. Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure law, as the carpet industry’s network of trucks depends on reliable roads and ports. Mrs. Greene, like most House Republicans, voted against the package. But she called the 13 Republicans who backed the bill traitors and tweeted their phone numbers, angering colleagues. Mrs. Greene also didn’t request special funds for her district after Congress restored earmarks in annual spending bills. In Dalton, Mayor David Pennington said his priority is money to reduce storm water runoff on Interstate 75, and he hopes he can pay for the $8 million project through a grant program funded by the infrastructure law. Some 56 bridges in the district, or 4.2%, are structurally deficient, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, above the state average.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-challenger-jennifer-strahan-courts-business-leaders-11651153361 (subscription)
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