Will Marjorie Taylor Greene Be Donald Trump's 2024 Running Mate?

In the space of a few years, Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene has risen from fringe conspiracy theorist to one of the most prominent members of Congress.

Her rapid ascent within the GOP following her 2020 midterm election victory in Georgia's 14th district could ultimately see her entering the White House, with speculation that Donald Trump is pondering asking her to be his 2024 running mate.

The claim was made by journalist Robert Draper in an interview for The Daily Beast's The New Normal podcast about his new book, Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind.

Draper said Trump has been discussing Greene as his potential vice president since at least February as she has been "unflaggingly loyal" to him throughout her career.

According to an extract of Draper's book, published in The New York Times, Greene said she would be "honored" if she was asked to be Trump's vice president, while being aware of the potential fallout.

"I think the last person that the RNC [Republican National Committee] or the national party wants me as his running mate," Greene said.

Greene's rise in profile to potential presidential running ticket is even more surprising given she could easily have been essentially banished from political life after a few months into her first term.

In February 2021, the Democrat-controlled House stripped Greene of her committee assignments due to her pre-Congress inflammatory social media activities, including expressing support for the radical QAnon conspiracy theory and "liking" a Facebook post which called for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be shot.

A few months later, Greene was also heavily criticized by GOP leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for comments she made comparing mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic to the atrocities carried out against the Jews during the Holocaust.

However, Greene has managed to move on from early controversies, albeit while continuing to rack up new ones, to become one of the most influential figures in the Republican Party.

Fast forward to September 2022, and as McCarthy was unveiling the GOP's midterm election agenda in Pennsylvania, Greene sat prominently behind him.

Christopher Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton and author of the book Do Running Mates Matter?: The Influence of Vice Presidential Candidates in Presidential Elections, said that speculation about any potential 2024 ticket at this stage should be taken "with a grain of salt" while suggesting why Trump could be open to having Greene alongside him.

"Surely, he knows that the prospect of selecting Greene will provoke outrage among his critics," Devine told Newsweek.

"In the past, that would have been a bad thing. Trump, on the other hand, feeds off such outrage and attention, even if negative. In his mind, if we're talking about him, he's winning."

However, beyond the GOP's much-loved policy of "owning the libs," are there hints that a Trump/Greene 2024 ticket may work for the former president?

Are Their Policies Aligned?

There are a number of issues in which the pair could campaign on a united front, such as immigration. Trump made a key campaign promise in 2016 to build a wall across the US.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. Greene has pushed for tougher policies as well, including recently calling for a complete four-year pause on immigration to the U.S.

Greene has also shown support for the former president amid his constant battles and investigations. During her three years in office, Greene attempted to launch impeachment hearings against President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, and called for former top White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to be "fired" for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When FBI agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in August, Greene suggested the agency needed to be defunded.

However, there are several hot-topic policies that Greene supports that even Trump may consider too extreme, at least for the time being.

Greene has described herself as a Christian nationalist. Christian nationalists support the idea that the U.S. should solely be governed as a Christian nation. In comparison Trump, whose daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner, frequently calls for more respect from the American Jewish community and took several steps to appeal to Jewish voters and maintain ties with Israel as president, including moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Greene is fervently against abortion, and is calling for a nationwide ban with no exceptions. In the past, Trump has said he is pro-abortion, although he promised in 2016 to appoint Supreme Court justices who were certain to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Since the landmark ruling was quashed by SCOTUS in June, Trump is reported to have privately expressed concerns about the backlash it would cause for the GOP, and has not come out in support of any national ban.

While president, Trump also occasionally shifted away from the "populist orthodoxy" with which Greene aligns, Devine said, such as supporting some gun reform in the U.S. and urging Americans to get the COVID vaccine, which may ultimately cause friction.

"Trump's and Greene's policies are closely aligned. They share a similar base of support, and—perhaps most importantly—the same enemies," Devine told Newsweek.

"There is some risk that Greene could out-MAGA him at some point. This might actually be a reason—among many others—not to select her."

Despite some potential conflicts and differences, Bernard Tamas, associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, suggested if Greene is on the 2024 running ticket, she will be there due to her support of Trump's MAGA agenda, rather than her appeal to the masses.

"Traditionally a U.S. presidential candidate tries to offset their perceived weaknesses by choosing a running mate who might broaden their voter appeal. Should Trump choose Greene, however, he would be bucking that trend by continuing to cater to his hardline base that isn't put off by Greene's xenophobic utterances and election denying," Tamas told Newsweek.

"Putting Greene on the ticket would fit with Trump's existing pattern of picking sycophantic but often politically weak and polarizing candidates."

How Much Money Could MTG Raise?

One area which could play in Greene's favor is her ability to drum up millions of dollars from her supporters while still only campaigning on a regional level.

The Georgia congresswoman is one of the biggest political fundraisers in Congress. In 2022, she managed to raise more than $11.5 million, the 10th highest out of all House congressional candidates.

In 2021, her first year in Congress, Greene raised nearly $6.3 million for her re-election campaign, the fourth highest among the 212 House Republicans in office at the time.

How Does MTG Poll?

While it is still too early to suggest whether Greene has the backing of the American public for a potential vice presidential run, there is little to indicate her national support would be able to mimic what she enjoys in Georgia.

Despite her scandals, Greene is still the overwhelming favorite to win re-election in Georgia's 14th District in November. Polling website FiveThirtyEight even declares that Greene has a 99 percent chance of beating her Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers in the midterms.

In January, a survey conducted by the GOP firm TargetPoint found that 60 percent of 450 potential GOP primary voters in Georgia had a favorable view of Greene, including 37 percent who stated they were "strongly" in favor of her.

Crucially, a majority of those taking part in the survey said that Greene's incendiary remarks and activities would not influence how they intended to vote in the then-upcoming GOP primary.

When given examples of Greene's previous controversial comments, such as suggesting the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings and 9/11 attacks were hoaxes, nearly half said it made no impact on their decision on who to vote for, with more than 1 in 10 saying it actually made them more likely to support Greene over challenger Jennifer Strahan.

However, a national YouGov poll of 1,500 people carried out in April showed that just 11 percent of respondents held a "very favorable" opinion of Greene, compared with more than a third (34 percent) who said they had a "very unfavorable" opinion.

Ultimately, Devine believes that for any Trump ticket to work, the former president must be the only one generating headlines, which certainly does not play into Greene's favor. Nor does her lack of "notable policy achievements, or expertise in such areas as foreign affairs."

"Simply put, Marjorie Taylor Greene is not up to the job of serving as vice president, let alone president, if necessary," Devine told Newsweek, adding more suitable candidates for Trump could include South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem or Florida Senator Rick Scott.