To hold Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, Republicans need to appeal to the moderate and independent voters in Gwinnett County, an increasingly diverse, immigrant-heavy part of suburban Atlanta.
Rich McCormick, an emergency room doctor and former Marine with a degree from the Morehouse School of Medicine, appeared to fit the bill.
But new support from northwest Georgia could complicate McCormick’s efforts to build a broader coalition. On Tuesday, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon-supporting Republican running unopposed in the 14th District and known for posting racist and offensive videos on social media, endorsed McCormick.
She helpfully attached a picture of the two side-hugging at a recent GOP event in her Twitter post:
“Rich McCormick is a Marine, ER doctor, husband, father, and has a huge heart for ALL people!,” Greene wrote. “He’s running against a radical communist college professor @Carolyn4GA7 👎 she’s horrible & has never accomplished anything.”
That college professor is Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, who pounced immediately. “As we’ve said all along, Rich McCormick’s political views are aligned with the racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the far right,” her campaign said.
CNN recently rated the Seventh District as the mostly likely U.S. House seat in the nation to flip in November. U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville, currently holds it.
What’s interesting is that McCormick isn’t exactly celebrating the Greene endorsement. It wasn’t retweeted onto his timeline or highlighted in a press release. But he isn’t running from it, either.
“Marjorie and Rich certainly don’t agree on everything and he has condemned some of her comments,” McCormick spokesman John Simpson said. “The only thing to take from this picture is Rich and Marjorie both agree that he is the best candidate to represent GA 7 in Congress.”
Simpson reminded us that McCormick condemned Greene in August after she falsely accused George Soros of assisting Nazis as a child. McCormick, who himself had criticized Soros’s support of Democratic causes, said Greene should apologize and accused her of spreading an anti-Semitic conspiracy.
McCormick’s campaign is now hoping to shift the narrative by promoting a new ad that accuses Bourdeaux of extremist ties and supporting defunding the police. Her campaign says it is a deflection and full of inaccurate claims about her platform. For example, she does not support defunding the police but does believe systemic racism in law enforcement and government needs addressing.
“A new attack ad from Rich McCormick leans on racist tropes in a desperate, last-ditch scramble to save his flailing campaign,” her campaign said this morning.
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