GAINESVILLE — When voters elected U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde in 2020 it was in part because his anti-establishment message resonated in his deeply conservative district.
But now some Republicans in northeast Georgia’s 9th Congressional District say Clyde is too much of an outsider, openly challenging GOP leaders like President Donald Trump. And they say he prioritizes pet issues, like gun rights, instead of focusing on his constituents in a district where farmlands are becoming subdivisions.
Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon and Hall County Commissioner Gregg Poole have filed paperwork to challenge Clyde in next year’s GOP primary. They say voters deserve a congressman who is more present and plugged in.
“I am hearing people say they never see him out there,” Couvillon said. “They don’t really get any help from him.”
Clyde bristles both at the notion that he has not been attentive to the voters who elected him and at the assertion that he has failed Trump.
“There is no one more supportive of President Trump’s agenda than me, OK?” he said. “I was probably the very first person, when President Trump went for reelection after he won in 2016, that had Trump 2020 signs out there and Trump 2024.”
Even while being branded a contrarian, Clyde said much of his work was about helping Trump make good on his promises. He said he and other House Freedom Caucus members initially opposed the tax and spending package known as the “big beautiful bill” because green energy programs were not phased out quickly enough, which would have delayed Trump from making good on a key campaign promise.
Clyde, who owns gun stores in Athens and Warner Robins, said his efforts to expand access to firearms and accessories were a key tenant of his original campaign for Congress in 2020 and something that voters embraced.
“I promised them that I would not only protect and defend the Second Amendment, but I would work to restore what we had lost,” he said. “I mean, you see what my political sign says: ‘Protect the Second.’”
Clyde was elected to the seat vacated by Rep. Doug Collins, a Gainesville Republican who ran for U.S. Senate instead of seeking another term. He received the second-most votes in an nine-way GOP primary and went on to defeat state Rep. Matt Gurtler in the runoff. From there, winning the general election was an easy glide because of the district’s right-leaning electorate.
Clyde mostly self-financed that 2020 race. As he prepares to run for a fourth term, he has begun to receive attention and dollars from political committees tied to corporations and special interests like Home Depot and the Georgia Oilmen’s Association, a trade group for petroleum wholesalers. But he is far from a prolific fundraiser, which poses a problem as he seeks reelection.
During the first six months of this year, Clyde raised $165,239.74. Couvillon has nearly tripled his haul with $436,665 raised. Poole formally launched his campaign recently and hasn’t yet reported fundraising totals.
Over the years, Clyde and other House Freedom Caucus members have caused headaches for Republican leaders who have governed a slim majority since the 2022 elections. But the group generally negotiates a path forward that finds them agreeing to support Trump and GOP leadership.
Still, Couvillon and Poole say there is a growing of list of examples of Clyde falling short on district issues.
Poole said that when the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to shut down nearly two dozen parks surrounding Lake Lanier as a cost-cutting measure that coincided the Memorial Day weekend, it was Rep. Mike Collins who worked with local officials on a remedy, not Clyde. Collins represents the neighboring 10th District and parts of Lake Lanier.
Clyde said he not only was involved in convincing the Army Corps to reverse some of those closures but he is working to get legislation passed that will make it easier for local governments to lease parks from the Army Corps to help shoulder costs moving forward.
Poole said Clyde also hasn’t engaged with local officials on how to obtain federal funding for roads and affordable housing as the population in Hall County continues to grow.
“If we’re not willing to talk about that, then we sure can’t talk about bump stocks and silencers,” he said, referencing Clyde’s pet issue. “I’m all about the Second Amendment and having gun rights and all that. But if that’s all you can talk about, I don’t want you talking for me no more.”
Clyde, who is a member of the Appropriations Committee, has declined each year to participate in the earmarks process that would allow him to request federal funding for specific projects in his district.
On this, he said, he is sticking to another one of the principles he has held close since being elected: Cutting federal spending to reduce the deficit.
“Most all of the community funding projects that you see are not federal responsibilities or federal authorities,” he said. “It’s money spent outside the Constitution, and it’s wrong.”
Couvillon said the fact that the downtown Gainesville post office still has not been relocated to a more accessible location is proof of Clyde’s ineffectiveness. Collins had worked hard on the issue up until his final day in office, the mayor said, but his successor never picked up the mantle.
“I asked for a meeting with Congressman Clyde,” he said. “We met, and I never heard back from him. It just died on the vine. Now we’re still stuck with that post office in the middle of our most condensed area and busiest street.”
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