At 45, Marcus Flower, the Democratic candidate for the representative seat of the “14th district” of Georgia, north of Atlanta, often refers to his childhood, spent in misery in Troy, Alabama, to justify his perseverance. and his determination in the current electoral race in the United States.
“I was the child who wore damaged clothes, the one who was rejected, the one who was looked at askance, he said in an interview with the To have to. From that time, I have kept two things: faith, which is unwavering in me, and above all resistance to bullies. »
The luggage was heavy to carry, admits the veteran, who led difficult missions in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past before returning to work here for the Ministry of Defense. But he also seems to have predisposed him to confront the Republican who faces him in this district: Marjorie Taylor Greene, rising figure of Trumpism and screaming mouthpiece for conspiracy theories, who entered Congress in 2020 through the door that voters in this district have opened up to him here, with a remarkable support of 75% of the votes cast. In the region, Donald Trump was also supported, during his 2020 defeat, in the same proportion.
The figures are not favorable to Marcus Flower, who qualifies his campaign during these mid-term elections as a “critical mission”, to use the terms of his former profession, displaying despite everything calm and serenity.
“I’m here to dislodge Marjorie Taylor Greene, drops the man, who never goes out in public without his cowboy hat. I’m here to provide a choice voters didn’t have in 2020 [le candidat démocrate de l’époque contre la populiste s’était désisté avant le jour du scrutin]. I talk to my neighbours, I knock on doors in the district and I explain that we are facing a historic election. It’s not just candidates who are on the ballot this year. They are also democracy and its preservation. And Marjorie Taylor Greene does not represent this democracy. »
Since the defeat of Donald Trump, the Republican has tirelessly defended her ex-boss, helping to promote his baseless theories about electoral fraud that has never been demonstrated. These allegations seeking to justify a defeat also tend to discredit the electoral process in the United States, even if the experts and the American justice have qualified the 2020 ballot as one of the most reliable and fairest in history. from the country.
And the Republican candidate is never afraid to go even further. “The Democratic Party is the party of child abuse. It is the party of the exploitation and sexualization of children in school, the one that teaches them anti-white racism through critical theories on race and child genital mutilation. [sic]. Kids who don’t even have a driver’s license yet, can’t have a tattoo and can’t vote,” she said last week during a debate against Marcus. Flower organized by the Atlanta Press Club. “How can you, as a father, represent the Democratic Party? Do you believe in genital mutilation of children under 18,” she added in front of a calmly nodding Democrat.
” Boy, he dropped. That’s a lot of things. And if you really believe any of that, well, I pray for you. »
Since the start of the campaign, the Democrat has managed a tour de force by raising more than 14 million dollars in donations, or 3 million more than the treasure amassed by his populist opponent in this race. In 2020, Taylor Greene had injected only 2 million in the campaign that led her to Congress.
It is this Congress, attacked by insurgents, harangued by Donald Trump and the candidate of the 14e district of Georgia, to a lesser extent, which prompted Marcus Flower to enter politics and confront Marjorie Taylor Greene, he admits. “When I saw what happened on January 6, 2020, when I heard the lies told [par la républicaine] to launch the crowd on the Capitol, to attack the seat of our democracy, the one for which my friends died in Iraq and Afghanistan, I said to myself that I could no longer remain idle. »
Flower in difficult terrain
“It is very difficult, two weeks before the vote, to see the path that Marcus Flower could follow to win the 14e district of Georgia, analyzes political scientist Jelena Subotić, a professor at Georgia State University. He is in a very conservative Republican district, where political partisanship has become a way of building an identity. »
The ground is indeed difficult for Marcus Flower, who places his hopes in the arrival since 2020 of 20,000 new Democratic voters registered on the electoral lists in the district. An addition Republican state lawmakers have sought to dilute with a purposeful redrawing of the district’s electoral map this year, which has reduced Democratic influence in the south and bolstered Republican influence in the territory’s northeast. In the United States, it’s called doing gerrymandering.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene remains a textbook case, explains Mme Subotic. Although the rest of the country and even the rest of the world views her as a dangerous far-right extremist, for her constituents this reputation only increases their support for her. They see her as someone who fights against what they perceive as the “mainstream liberal establishment”, and the more outrageous things she says, the more popular she becomes. »
In Rome, in the center of this mainly rural district, stronghold of the populist, Republican LuGina Brown, an active member of the party in Floyd County, was full of praise on Monday for the candidate, whose victory is not, according to her, only a formality. “She is very popular here. She speaks frankly. She calls out the things that are wrong, and God knows there are a lot of them. The Democrats have taken our voice away from us and are setting the country in the wrong direction. We have to go out massively to vote. »
And to add: “Marcus Flower? I’ve never seen him here. I don’t even know where he lives and I’m here all the time. While Marjorie, she knows everyone. She knows where all the schools are in the district. »
“It’s the turnout that could change things for Marcus,” Bob Christian, the Democratic candidate for the neighboring district, says on 6e, met Monday night in a tavern in Marietta north of Atlanta. This rate was 58% in 2020 in the district coveted by the man in the cowboy hat, and its growth generally tends to favor the Democratic candidates. “He has a chance to win this race, otherwise he wouldn’t work as hard to get there. He is also the better of the two candidates. But, in the end, it is the voters who will decide. For better or, unfortunately, for worse. »
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.