Marjorie Taylor Greene’s move to the mainstream baffles her MAGA-land constituents: report

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has in recent months moved to the mainstream, and some of the conservative firebrand’s constituents don’t like it, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Greene earlier this year joined House moderates in backing Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) for the speakership, and last week bucked her ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus colleagues by supporting the debt ceiling deal.

The AJC’s Patricia Murphy writes that, “The word right now is that the base is confused,” said one Georgia GOP insider. “They’re shaking their heads saying, ‘I don’t know what to do with this.’ They’re hurt.”

What really hurt, according to Murphy, was Greene’s statement after the debt ceiling vote in which she slammed her far-right congressional allies.

Murphy writes that “Greene’s vote for the debt ceiling wasn’t nearly as offensive to some fellow Republicans as something she told reporters on the steps of the Capitol just after the vote.”

“I live in reality, not conservative fantasyland,” Greene said.

A stunned Georgia Republican told The AJC they assumed Greene was referring to fellow Georgia GOP Reps. Rich McCormick, Andrew Clyde, and Mike Collins, all of whom voted against the debt limit deal.

“So those other guys live in fantasyland?” the Georgia Republican told The AJC.

“When she was being called a wacko, we had her back.”

Murphy notes that the state’s ruby red 14^th District that Greene serves is shifting purple, in part because of redistricting that added a blue portion of Cobb County to the district, along with development along the I-75 corridor, where solar plants and EV component manufacturing abounds.

Greene won the district with 75 percent of the vote in 2020 and garnered 66 percent of the vote last year.

Murphy writes that Greene is facing a key test among activists at this weekend’s GOP convention.

Greene last week posted a video on Twitter of a town hall in which she is shown receiving a standing ovation; another video of the event shows an audience member yelling, “Crazy! Crazy is what you are!”

“Greene is used to being called crazy, but she’s not used to being doubted by her base or losing elections,” Murphy writes.

“Her speech this weekend will tell us where she goes from here.”

Read the full article here.