In the early days of 2023, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was riding high. She had gone from the fringe of the House Republican Caucus to being a key ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., with her choice of committee assignments and a finger on the scale setting the GOP’s agenda. But her time as a power broker was as short-lived as McCarthy’s reign.
Since McCarthy’s downfall, Greene has been on a bit of a tear, flailing about and lashing out at other Republicans as she tries to regain her standing as an avatar of the MAGA movement. The Washington Post on Monday framed Greene’s behavior as her being back to her old self, but the truth is a bit more unfortunate for her. As she nears the halfway point of her sophomore term, Greene is more isolated than ever — and an attempt to win back her former status seems unlikely to work twice.
The version of Greene that arrived in Congress in 2021 had a chip on her shoulder, not least because Republican leadership had condemned her conspiracy theory-touting before she’d even been elected. But she entered the House as a MAGA favorite and quickly found her people among the House Freedom Caucus. Greene proved to be a perfect foil for House Democrats and the newly installed Biden administration and a major headache for McCarthy and other Republican leaders.
Greene went further, though, offering to exchange her cachet among the far right for proximity to power.
But the tide began to turn as the cash began to roll in for Greene. Even though she held an entirely safe seat, she raised an incredible $3.2 million in the first three months of her freshman year. Soon, she was touted as a headliner at GOP fundraising events around the country. That she had been removed from her committee assignments for speaking at a white nationalist conference left her with even more time to raise money — a language that McCarthy, another top fundraiser, spoke well.
It was that acknowledgment of Greene’s popularity that bonded her…
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