Politics- Marjorie Taylor Greene has become cozier with the GOP establishment — and vice versa — in recent months.
- She's donated to several vulnerable GOP incumbents and sent $275,000 to the party's House campaign arm.
As the institutional Republican Party raises the money necessary to defend the GOP's tenuous House majority, more and more of it is coming from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The congresswoman's latest quarterly filings with the Federal Election Commission reveal that Greene has spent a total of $311,000 this year on helping the party win tough House races.
That includes a hefty $275,000 contribution on February 28 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — House Republican's main campaign arm — as well as $2,000 apiece on March 29 to 18 other House Republicans, many of whom sit in districts that Democrats plan to target during the 2024 campaign.
Here are some of the vulnerable House Republicans that accepted $2,000 from Greene:
- Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, who represents a Tuscon-area swing district.
- David Schweikert of Arizona, one of the most vulnerable House Republicans who represents a Phoenix-area swing district.
- Anthony D'Esposito of New York, whose upset victory on Long Island helped pave the way for the new GOP majority.
- Mike Garcia of California, who represents a Los Angeles-area district that Joe Biden won in 2020.
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, who narrowly defeated a progressive candidate in a district long held by Democrats.
- Jen Kiggans of Virginia, who defeated Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in November 2022.
- Monica De La Cruz of Texas, whose Rio Grande Valley-based districts borders the US-Mexico border.
Greene also gave $2,000 to other more hardline conservatives whose districts aren't as deep-red, including House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma.
It's a stark departure from Greene's first two years in Congress, when 11 of her GOP colleagues joined with Democrats to boot her from her committee assignments over her history of violent online rhetoric and her prior belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory. Greene has since embarked on an attempt to clean up her image.
During that time, Greene donated to just a handful of other GOP candidates who share her hard-right views, some of which did not make it past Republican primary elections. She did contribute a total of $350,000 to the NRCC, which she's now on track to potentially exceed.
Her contributions to the party's most vulnerable lawmakers are likely to raise eyebrows — and become a key opportunity for Democrats, given her history of controversial statements.
One of Schweikert's Democratic opponents is already calling on the Arizona congressman to return Greene's contribution.
Greene's increased generosity towards the rest of the party comes amid her emergence as a key ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, despite her past criticisms of him.
Additionally, as a newly-minted member of the influential House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, the Georgia congresswoman recently lead a group of her Republican colleagues on a tour of the DC jail, where she has alleged that January 6 rioters are being mistreated.
But even as Greene's relationship with the institutional Republican Party has changed, her views and positions have largely stayed the same.
As recently as two months ago, the Georgia congresswoman floated the idea of a "national divorce," and she has become an outspoken defender of the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who's now accused of leaking classified Pentagon documents online.
And during a recent interview on 60 Minutes, she defended her incendiary contention that Democrats are a "party of pedophiles."