While Democrats’ odds of taking back the Senate are long, an announcement Monday afternoon should remind us why we can’t dismiss the possibility entirely.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s declaration that he would not challenge freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff next year means more than the GOP not having its strongest horse. It means greater chances that Georgia Republican primary voters will nominate the kind of candidate that I describe as “exotic and potentially problematic.” This is not to say that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will definitely run for the seat, or that she would absolutely win a GOP primary, but GOP primary voters have made some very interesting, even perplexing, decisions in recent years. Whomever they pick might well be more aligned with Greene than Kemp—not necessarily ideal for swing voters in a swing state.
Don’t forget that Republicans managed to punt away as many as four Senate seats over the last two election cycles by nominating candidates in swing and near-swing states who might have been able to win in deeply red states but not purple states. Just last
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