Prominent GOP ‘mega-donors’ enthusiastically supported congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene despite her extremist pro-QAnon views: report

One of this summer’s most disturbing Republican victories came on Tuesday, August 11, when QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene defeated fellow Republican John Cowan in a primary in Georgia’s 14^th Congressional District. Given how overwhelmingly Republican Greene’s district is, she is likely to win in November — and bring her pro-QAnon views to the U.S. House of Representatives. Journalist Julia Carrie Wong discusses Greene’s campaign in an article published in the Guardian on August 24, stressing that some well-known GOP mega-donors have supported the Georgia Republican despite her extreme views.

Greene’s campaign, Wong reports, received financial support from “groups connected to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his wife” as well as “the chairman of the board of prominent conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation” and “multiple Republican mega-donors.”

The QAnon conspiracy cult believes that President Donald Trump, who congratulated Greene after her primary victory, was sent to the White House to combat an international ring of pedophiles and Satanists that has infiltrated the U.S. government and that an anonymous figure named “Q” is giving them updates on Trump’s battle. And Greene gave the QAnon movement her enthusiastic support in a video posted on YouTube in 2017.

In addition to her support of QAnon, Greene has a history of racist, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic remarks. Her opponent in the congressional primary, John Cowan, is a hard-right Trump supporter, but he wasn’t extreme enough for some Republican voters in Georgia’s 14^th Congressional District.

Wong notes that Greene “received significant backing” from the House Freedom Fund, a political action committee associated with the far-right House Freedom Caucus — and the Meadows-associated political action committee Your Voice Counts donated $2000 to Greene’s campaign in March.

According to Wong, “Greene received further support from the Meadows family when the RightWomen PAC, whose executive director is Debbie Meadows, Mark’s wife, endorsed Greene and spent $17,500 to oppose Cowan in the runoff…. In addition to spending more than $30,000 on an independent expenditure campaign to support Greene over Cowan, the House Freedom Fund raised nearly $90,000 from its own donors, earmarked for Greene’s campaign. These earmarked donations include $5600 from Barb Van Andel-Gaby, the chairman of the board of the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank.”

One outfit that is now making a point of distancing itself from Greene is Koch Industries, which donated $5000 to her campaign though its PAC. After Greene’s victory, a spokesperson for Koch contacted AlterNet and stressed that “Koch does not support her campaign” — pointing out that “in June, upon learning of Ms. Greene’s past comments, KOCHPAC immediately requested a refund of its contribution” and saying that Koch does not condone Greene’s “harmful and divisive rhetoric.”

Never Trump conservative Tim Miller, who formerly served as communications director for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and is now political director of Republican Voters Against Trump and a frequent contributor to The Bulwark, is vehemently critical of Republicans who have openly supported Greene. Miller told the Guardian, “Getting involved in a primary on behalf of an absolutely insane, conspiracy-minded, explicitly racist candidate in a seat that is reliably conservative is mind-bogglingly irresponsible. This is how you signal to the Trump base, ‘We are with you. We