A GOP congressional candidate who’s come under fire for endorsing ‘QAnon’ conspiracy theories has taken more than half the vote in Georgia’s primary runoff race, putting her on track to become the first Q-supporter in Congress.
Businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene prevailed over her fellow Republican John Cowan on Tuesday night, earning more than 57 percent of the vote. Greene ran a victory lap following the final result, celebrating her win despite “the GOP establishment, the media, and the radical left” spending “months and millions of dollars attacking me.”
Greene was criticized by both Democrats and the GOP alike during the race, with most detractors pointing to controversial comments in the past, including her support for QAnon theories, which are based on the online postings of an alleged government insider known only as “Q.” Backers of the movement generally believe deep state actors are targeting the Trump administration, some going further to allege elaborate child sex trafficking rings among the rich and powerful, as well as Satan-worship and occultism.
Though Greene has taken some heat for playing up the QAnon phenomenon – once saying the mysterious Q figure is a “patriot” who had “given clues” that “have really proven to be true” – that has not stopped her from receiving some high-level endorsements from within her own party, with Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) backing her election bid in April. Her campaign was bolstered by tens of thousands of dollars in contributions from the House Freedom Fund, a PAC linked to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, while Tuesday’s victory also earned her warm words from the chairman of the Georgia GOP.
Next to Greene’s apparent fascination with Q, detractors have also gone after prior remarks on a range of issues, including Islam and Sharia Law, as well as her intense criticism of the wealthy investor and Democratic donor George Soros, some dubbing her words ‘anti-Semitic.’
Despite the controversy, Greene struck a resounding victory over her opponent on Tuesday, beating out Cowan by some 15 points, despite his status as a medical professional during a mid-pandemic race. Cowan received only 21 percent of the vote during the initial primary election in June, which triggered a runoff when neither candidate secured over 50 percent of the ballots in their favor.
Running in one of Georgia’s reddest districts, Greene is now slated to replace the outgoing Republican Rep. Tom Graves, with her victory in the upcoming contest in November all but assured after scoring big in the runoff race.
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