Marjorie Taylor Greene for president. Randy Bone rolled the idea around in his hands for a second as he stood inside his wife’s antique shop in Ringgold, Georgia. He’s heard the talk. He’s even seen the prediction market action. He doesn’t have a problem with his boisterous, attention-seeking congresswoman. He just doesn’t think it will work.

“I don’t know. I don’t see her as one that is very attractive … You’ve got to focus on those that are kind of in the middle, and I don’t think that she’s unifying enough,” he said.

Greene has spent five years in Congress, drawing attention for wild conspiracies and outrageous statements about national politics. Last week, she announced that she would resign her seat in January.

Greene’s voters in north-west Georgia, contemplating her legacy with her impending exit from Congress, said they are less concerned about the culture war issues that have dominated her tenure than they are about the kitchen table concerns that drive their discontent.

Bone, 55, a Ringgold resident and Trump supporter, said he is conservative but doesn’t describe himself as a Republican, though he is quick to distance himself from Democrats, except for former ones such as the director of national intelligence,, Tulsi Gabbard, and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

When asked what he wants out of Washington, he talks economic issues. “We want the economy to keep improving, you know what I mean? You want to be able to afford gas. You want to be able to afford vacations.”

Even in Ringgold, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee, housing costs have skyrocketed. Bone described how rapidly rising home values and high mortgage rates trap families like his: they have equity but cannot afford to move. He believes both parties have contributed to systemic economic problems.

“I’ve got a son that’s about to be 18. We have housing issues and it’s great for the boomers … Their houses have appreciated and appreciated, but that’s pushed out the younger kids to where they can’t afford houses.”

In the weeks before Greene’s break with Trump over the Epstein files, the congresswoman had been sounding alarms about the rising cost of health insurance and how it would affect voters. Trump and Greene have been trading increasingly vitriolic public comments ever since she signed the discharge petition to bring a vote before congress to release additional documents in the case.

Joy Thorton, who owns an antique store and other buildings in downtown Ringgold, said she has never been a Greene supporter, and finds the spat hard to take seriously.

“If she was really pissed off, she would resign now, instead of waiting until January so she gets her pension,” Thorton said. “None of them should get it.”

Deep disagreement with Trump turned Thorton into a Democrat, she said. But her concerns remain fundamentally conservative: rising property values have come with rising property taxes. Homes under construction aren’t affordable for the people who have grown up in the area.

“I bet you there are a bunch of people in this county who will not be able to pay their property tax,” Thorton said. “And if it triples over a year, the super-wealthy will buy all that property out from under them.”

Greene has spoken out against Wall Street hedge fund managers buying up single-family residential properties, in the context of criticizing a Trump proposal for 50-year mortgages as a solution to the housing crisis. The public largely missed her comments, lost in the larger conflict between the two.

There’s a vitriol in politics both in Washington and locally that seems pervasive, said Steven Henry, chair of the Catoosa county board of commissioners.

“We have become so divided – not just Democrat and Republican, but Republican left and Republican extremist,” Henry said. “I’ve been a Republican all my life, yet I’ve got Republicans who hate me because I’m not Republican enough. Even though I never raised taxes and held them every year I was in office … It boils down to I’m not loud, I’m not boisterous.”

Catoosa county is politically as red as a barn with a “See Rock City” sign on the way to Lookout Mountain. But internecine fighting on the county’s Republican party committee threatened to administer conservative “purity tests” to candidates before allowing them to run as Republicans – a gambit halted by state judges that remains the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Henry expects a scramble of office seekers for the open seat, with resignations from local office holders and a cascade of highly contested elections down the ballot. He did not say if he would seek the nomination himself. Instead, he lamented the unwillingness of competent leaders to step up and run for public office, its luster tarnished by withering, extreme abuse taken from a disillusioned public, he said.

Even Greene in parting has described an increase in death threats against her as motivation for her retreat.

“Oh I haven’t suffered enough for you while you post all day behind a screen?” Greene said in response to a comment on X by conservative commentator Mike Cernovich. “Do I have to stay until I’m assassinated like our friend Charlie Kirk. Will that be good enough for you then?”

The internal squabbling over ideology will eventually give Democrats an opening, even in a place where Republican leadership thoroughly dominates local politics, Henry said. “Maybe it will take some strong opponent on the Democratic side to get us back, focused on just doing the job.”

For Charles Carroll, owner of the Broken Horseshoe Winery in Ringgold and a staunch conservative, elected leaders should be focused on eliminating corruption, keeping taxes low and keeping the currency strong. His store has a video display that – in between messages about his business – intermittently flashes Trump’s face and a message of support for the city.

For Carroll, Greene’s appeal has been rooted in challenging the status quo. “I want somebody in there that’s going to ask the questions nobody will ask and try to get the answers,” he said. “Our forefathers fought for this nation to make it free, and I don’t know of anything in this nation that’s free any more.”

His winery business has been down 30% this year, which he attributes to economic conditions that are squeezing his customers.

“It’s not just the wine industry. Every local business that I’ve talked to is struggling right now,” Carroll said. “As a country, as individuals in America, you used to have some extra income after your bills and stuff and you could splurge a little bit on this or that, go out to eat or something. Now by the time you pay your bills and stuff, from what I’m seeing from the average people out here, there’s nothing left over.”

That’s the problem that needs solving, he said.

ATLANTA — Georgia football put stubborn Georgia Tech rival behind it with a 16-9 win and now waits to learn its postseason path.

“Get some recovery, do some recruiting” UGA coach Kirby Smart said on Friday, asked about his weekend plans, “see what happens.”

The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs (11-1) need for Texas to beat Texas A&M in the teams’ 7:30 p.m. game in Austin or for Auburn to upset Alabama at 7:30 p.m. on at Jordan-Hare Stadium to play in the SEC championship next Saturday.

Smart, who has led UGA teams to appearances in seven of the past eight SEC title games — winning three of them, including last year’s — has made it clear he wants to hang another league banner

This, even though ESPN projected UGA to have a 77 percent chance of keeping a top-four seed even without playing in the SEC title game — which would mean a first-round bye.

“I’m an SEC enthusiast, (and) I look at it as what do you do to win the SEC,” Smart said on 92.9 The Game last week. “It’s one of the top moments of your career, of your year.”

Georgia earned a first-round bye last season after winning the league title game before losing to Notre Dame, 23-10 in the Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal.

The difference this year would be one less game and an extra week of rest, but Smart shrugged off that concept.

“I’d never agree it’s better (not to play in the SEC title game),” Smart said. “What about the experience you get from playing in that game? The pressure, the anxiety, yeah, banged up, sure, but there’s recovery time in there.”

Texas A&M is a 2.5-point favorite over Texas, and Alabama is a 5.5-point favorite over Auburn.

Here are Georgia’s CFP scenarios as of the end of UGA’s game on Friday evening:

Georgia CFP Scenario One

Georgia doesn’t play in SEC title game

Georgia could get a bye or host a first-round CFP game on Dec. 19 or Dec. 20 if it doesn’t play in the SEC title game, depending on if it finishes ranked in the top four of the final CFP rankings, which will be released on Dec. 7.

The most likely team to jump Georgia would be current No. 5-ranked and projected Big 12 champion Texas Tech (10-1).

The Red Raiders, with the benefit of a championship game against current projected Big 12 title game opponent BYU (ranked No. 11, and 10-1), could get a favorable bump from the committee.

The committee would note Texas Tech’s only defeat came to current No. 20 Arizona State in one of the two games the Red Raiders’ starting quarterback missed with injury.

There is a possibility in this scenario, however, that Georgia could remain ranked in the top four — and receive a bye, thus not hosting a first-round CFP game.

This would occur if the committee kept the Bulldogs ranked ahead of projected Big 12-winner Texas Tech — largely on the strength of UGA’s schedule and quality wins — even if the Red Raiders were to win out.

Of course, if Texas Tech lost at West Virginia, as a 23.5-point favorite on Saturday, that would derail the Red Raiders’ chances of passing UGA in the rankings, as would a Texas Tech loss in the Big 12 championship game to projected opponent BYU, a team it defeated earlier this season in Lubbock, 29-7.

Georgia CFP Scenario Two

Georgia plays in, and wins, SEC title game

If the Bulldogs win the SEC championship game, they would earn a top-four seed and get a first-round bye.

In this scenario, Georgia would most likely play in the Sugar Bowl at 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day in a CFP quarterfinal against a first-round winner. The Sugar Bowl gets the higher-ranked conference championship game winner from the SEC and Big 12.

Georgia CFP Scenario Three

Georgia plays in, loses in the SEC championship game

If UGA plays in and loses the SEC championship game, it’s more likely than not the Bulldogs would fall between No. 5 and No. 8 in the rankings and host a first-round CFP game.

This is especially true because the CFP selection committee has set a precedent that, barring an impactful injury to a key player or lopsided defeat, it will not drop a team playing in a conference championship game beneath a team that is not playing in its conference title game.

It seems unlikely an 11-2 Georgia would fall beneath the current one-loss teams ranked No. 6 and No. 7, neither of which is currently projected to play in their respective conference championship games

• No. 6 Oregon (10-1)

• No. 7 Ole Miss (10-1)

The Bulldogs’ head-to-head win over Ole Miss would likely limit UGA’s fall to No. 7.

Further, Georgia’s wins over Ole Miss and Texas would be transitive properties likely to keep it ahead of No. 8 Oklahoma (9-2), which lost to both of those teams this season.