Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA), didn't turn into what she is after she was elected. That's what the voters wanted in that wretched backward district northwest of Atlanta where Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee all meet up. 229,827 people (74.7%) voted for her in the R+27 district. (73.4% in the district voted for Trump.) Can you imagine if you had to live there? And, of course, it's anti-mask central and one of the worst-hit COVID-hotspots in the western hemisphere.
And, of course, it isn't just the folks in northwest Georgia who like her. QAnon nuts around the country idolize her. She is them; they are her. She raised over $3.2 million, mostly in small donations, in the first 3 months of 2021-- over 100,000 donors giving an average of $32 each. I wonder how much of it came in bitcoin and if she accepted roadkill. She's very wealthy and self-funded $953,650 into her campaign last year. As far as I can tell, she raised more than any other freshman who has reported so far, and probably more than any other member of the House!
She's the only member of the House barred from serving on committees, so she's had a lot of time on her hands for the kinds stunts that go over well with low-info wing nuts.
Writing for Vox yesterday, Gregory Svirnovskiy theorized that "The very actions that got Greene kicked off her committee assignments and drew the ire of House Democrats helped boost her national name recognition-- and led to a great deal of coverage in conservative media. Greene’s popularity among Republicans went up 11 percentage points in the days following the vote, with 30 percent of GOP voters viewing her favorably, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted from February 5 to 7. Her recognition among national voters increased by 14 percentage points. She’s aligned herself strongly with Trump, who remains popular in Republican circles. Ultimately, Green’s big fundraising haul is a reminder that gaining notoriety on conservative media-- rather than making efforts to pass meaningful legislation-- is what holds real value in the modern Republican Party.
Becoming the center of highly polarized controversy, and thereby the focus of fundraising, is nothing new in the modern era of politics. Greene follows the model of Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, Sen. Josh Hawley, and Sarah Palin, all conservative media superstars who generated glowing coverage on the right and hate on the left. But as social media has become more crucial to fundraising, ginning up controversies is more than just a way to raise your profile-- it’s also become essential to success in politics.
Given her popularity and apparent fundraising acumen, Greene’s future in Congress is all but assured-- if she can survive what will probably be a difficult primary battle in 2022. She represents Georgia’s 14th District, a GOP stronghold tucked away in the northwest part of the state. Republican Tom Graves took home 76.5 percent of the vote in 2018’s general election; two years later, Greene won a cool 74.7 percent of the vote against Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal in a bid to replace the retiring Graves, even as Democrats wrestled control in all three flagship statewide races.
Greene may face at least one Republican primary challenger who favors traditional conservatism over the Trump-like brand of politics Greene has embraced. David Boyle, chair of the Walker County Democratic Party in Georgia, told Business Insider in late February that he expects the 2022 GOP primary to be a “bloodbath.”
“The middle-of-the-road traditional Republicans are tired of all of this craziness,” Boyle said. And anti-Trump Republicans in Congress, such as Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, have begun laying the financial groundwork to support candidates who hew more closely to Reagan- or Bush-style Republicanism.