Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) is considered “controversial” by some. But it’s undeniable that she has connected with a certain segment of the right-wing political landscape, which has allowed her to tap a motherlode of cash.
The freshman representative from Georgia was stripped of her committee assignments on the Budget and Education and Labor Committees for saying crazy things. But “The Notorious MTG,” as she has become known, took it like Ben Kenobi: “If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
If fundraising is any indication of support — and it is — Marjorie Taylor Green is indeed powerful.
Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the controversial MAGA firebrand, raised over $3.2 million in the first three months of this year, according to a source close to her campaign. That eye-popping haul came from over 100,000 individual donors, for an average donation of $32. Greene did not self-fund this quarter, the source added.
That is a staggering sum of money for a House member, especially for a freshman who is more than a year out from her next election. For context, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), then a freshman, raked in $728,000 in the first quarter of 2019.
But what about all the hysterical hate thrown her way? It appears to actually have helped her fundraising efforts.
Greene appears to have actually benefited from all the controversies that have consumed her first few months in office. She directly fundraised off of Democrats’ decision to kick her off her committees for past incendiary rhetoric and warned her supporters that Democrats are trying to expel her from Congress. Greene is also still a fan favorite in Trumpworld: she met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week and they posed for a video together.
“Over 100,000 individual donations says it all. The People are with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her America First agenda. It’s clear she’s the heir to President Trump,” said the source close to her campaign. “While politicians inside the Beltway attack her daily, Americans are rushing to stand beside the Notorious MTG as she fights tooth and nail on the House floor utilizing procedural tactics to shut down Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ hostage takeover of Congress.”
She’s probably going to need a huge war chest going into the primaries. Even in her deep-red district, MTG is controversial. And some of her accusations have been downright bizarre (“space lasers” starting forest fires?). Her looniness will probably draw a few primary challengers who will claim to be just as conservative, love Trump just as much, but won’t say weird things to the press.
The real significance of MTG’s eye-popping fundraising haul is that it somewhat clarifies a rather murky picture of support for Republicans following the January 6 Capitol riot. If a freshman firebrand can outraise a liberal firebrand like AOC, there’s little to worry about if you’re a Republican. The attacks on Republicans from the radicals, the media, and the entire left-wing political establishment don’t appear to have fazed rank-and-file Republicans who opened their wallets for the “controversial” Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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