Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign committee ran a $314,000 deficit over the first three months of 2022, according to a recent Federal Election Commission filing.
The paperwork also reveals that the pugnacious Georgia GOP representative, who has gained media notoriety through a steady stream of outrageous pronouncements, overstated the amount of contributions she previously collected by more than $100,000.
Greene is one of the most dogged fundraisers in Congress. But her recent haul hasn’t kept apace with her expenditures. The Daily Beast reports:
Last quarter she sprung a hole in the bucket, as her campaign committee, Greene for Congress, spent about $1.38 million while taking in only $1.06 million in donations. Fundraising costs alone wiped out three-quarters of those receipts. Greene has deployed expensive digital fundraising operations in the past, and reports have dinged her for it, pointing out that the fees give the lie to an inflated small-dollar contribution stream.
Greene also spent $140,000 on security during the first quarter of 2022; she uses the same firm that guarded Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse. Other expenses included retaining the legal services of lawyer John Eastman, who concocted a widely ridiculed plan to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.
Democrat Marcus Flowers, an Army veteran challenging Greene for her seat, raised $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2022, $1.2 more than his rival.
The Hill reports:
Flowers is still well behind Greene in overall cash on hand. The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Greene with more than $3 million in the bank, while Flowers has about $1.9 million.
Overall, Greene has raised about $8.4 million for her reelection bid this year, though Flowers isn’t too far behind. He has raked in about $7.1 million for his campaign so far.
Unseating Greene is likely to be an uphill battle for any Democrat.
While the first-term representative has been at the center of multiple controversies since taking office last year, Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, which sits in the northwestern corner of the state, is heavily Republican. Both Greene and former President Trump carried it in 2020 by nearly 50-point margins.
