ROME, Ga. — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is redoubling her efforts to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — something she told Raw Story comes with “support” from her district.
But Greene’s Republican and Democratic constituents alike don’t necessarily agree with her motion to vacate Johnson over his cooperation with Democrats to pass a government funding bill that included aid to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia, Raw Story learned while visiting Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
“It’s nonsense. It’s exactly the thing that we don’t need,” said Luke Farmer, a 26-year-old Republican from Douglasville, Ga., who launched a campaign to challenge Greene but didn’t raise enough money to qualify for the ballot. “Do you really think that the House wants to be thrown into chaos again? And even if you managed to do it, who do you think they’re going to vote for with our majority being so narrow now? There’s a very good chance that [Democratic House Leader] Hakeem Jeffries could be in the spot.”
House Democrats are expected to save Johnson from removal by voting to table Greene’s motion to vacate. Greene was scheduled to meet with Johnson on Monday.
“We can’t have the chaos right now,” said Maggie Crowe, a member of the Floyd County Republican Women, “They’re not going to let it pass, but she’s vocalizing that she’s not real happy … and I understand that.”
Greene has some supporters from the far-right wing of the Republican party in Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Thomas Massie (R-KY). But it’s not expected to be enough support to succeed in removing Johnson.
“She needs to make known how she feels, and I’m sure there are others that feel the same way, that he betrayed them, but right now, we just can’t do anything about it,” Crowe said.
In October, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), with support from Greene and other far-right Republicans, successfully led a campaign to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after working with Democrats for a partial government funding bill to avert a government shutdown. It was the first time in U.S. history that the House removed its leader.
Johnson won the speakership after three of his colleagues’ failed attempts — remember Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) — and three weeks of vacancy.
“It also begs another question. You couldn’t get the change you wanted under McCarthy and now under Johnson. Why do you think you’re going to get change now under this current administration while the Dems still exert influence? Exactly, you’re not,” Farmer said. “So again, this whole thing is just theatrics because nothing’s going to happen.”
Wendy Davis, a Democrat who ran in 2022 to challenge Greene but lost to fellow Democrat Marcus Flowers in the primary, said oftentimes “regular people” in the district aren’t paying attention to Greene’s political moves on the national stage.
Republican voters Harvey Kershner, a 21-year-old construction worker in Rome, Ga., and Michelle Thurman, a 51-year-old dental assistant and office manager in the district’s Murray County, told Raw Story they weren’t following Greene’s motion to vacate Johnson.
“It still puzzles me how she can be this big anti-Ukraine aid, seemingly pro-Putin person in an area that has historically been so skeptical of Russia,” Davis said. “This was one of the areas of the country that was most virulently anti-communist, and it’s like they’ve forgotten that Russians were the big enemy, and it doesn’t make any sense to me how we sort of did that flip.”
Don Westlake, a beef producer in Polk County said he doesn’t understand why Greene would want to focus her efforts on ousting Johnson in this current political climate. He said he’d rather see her do more for the 14th Congressional District as he “can’t name one thing” that Greene has done for her constituents.
Westlake, a Republican, said he is voting for Shawn Harris, a Democrat who is running in the primary to take on Greene.
“I’m just tired of the complaining. I’m tired of ‘let’s impeach the president, let’s impeach the secretary’. What about us here that you represent in the 14th District?” Westlake said.
Nedra Manners, a Democrat and owner of Yellow Door Antiques and Art in Rome, Ga., said Greene’s push to remove Johnson is “just another example of her approach to things.”
“I have to commend him that he finally decided to do what’s right and not just do something because somebody else told him that’s what they wanted him to do,” Manners said. “He stood up for what was right.
