At the campaign, Ms. Greene presented herself as a deeply conservative Christian mother and business owner for Trump, arguing that her work in the construction industry filled her with the harshness that comes from working in a male-dominated field. She railed against the rising progressive wing in Congress, stressing the importance of the second amendment to the constitution with an AR-15and warned of “thousands” of immigrants “pouring” across the southwest border.
Ms. Greene largely turned away from the conspiracy on the trail, even though she did Cut a campaign ad Claim that “Deep State” actors tried to sabotage President Donald J. Trump before he even took office “and claimed on their campaign accounts that George Soros, the billionaire and democratic donor, “funds left movements worldwide that want to destroy Israel”.
The news at the time caused alarm among Republican leaders of the House and some members of the Georgian delegation, who feared that Ms. Greene’s election could pose a serious problem for her party. But they never mobilized to defeat them. While the top three Republicans in the House condemned a series of racist videos made by Ms. Greene, surfaced by PoliticoLouisiana’s sole representative, Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican, endorsed Dr. Cowan. Mr. McCarthy and the Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, the third largest executive, remained neutral.
According to one person familiar with their thinking, the top Republicans privately hoped that outside groups would be in support of Dr. Cowan would invade the main race and weaponize Ms. Greene’s arson attacks against her and doom her candidacy. But the outside effort never materialized.
Instead, Ms. Greene’s campaign received a major boost when the political arm of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus backed it, as did representatives Andy Biggs from Arizona, chairman of the group, and Jim Jordan from Ohio, a founder. She won the runoff in August and drove to victory in November.
That gave hope to Republican leaders that once Ms. Greene was sworn in, she would clean up her act, reject her earlier comments, and recall her outlandish rhetoric.
Instead, she stormed into Congress and was immediately screened for support for the Stop the Steal campaign, which falsely claimed that Mr. Trump won the 2020 presidential election.