The rise of QAnon and what it means for the Republican party

Republican Marjorie Taylor Green won a close primary runoff in Georgia this week. That likely guarantees she’ll win the congressional seat in November. Greene’s win is noteworthy because she’s a QAnon supporter.

The conspiracy theory QAnon says there’s a deep state within the U.S. government that’s working to undermine President Trump. The FBI has labeled the theory as a potential domestic terrorism threat.

“Q is a person or a group of people who are whistleblowers, so to speak, who have accused Democratic politicians and celebrities of being part of a child sex trafficking wing and being part of this secret international group that worships satan, that wants to control the world. There’s [sic] a lot of different levels to it,” says Ally Mutnick, House campaigns reporter for Politico.

She says Green’s belief in QAnon is troubling, and no one else in Congress right now subscribes to it.

“She’s made a lot of incredibly incendiary statements about Black people, about Muslims. She’s suggested that Muslims shouldn’t serve in government, that the Jewish mega donor George Soros helped the Nazis during the Holocaust,” says Mutnick.

Before Greene decided to run for Congress, she was a wealthy businesswoman who self-funded much of her campaign. She also had a large online/social media following.

Donald Trump supports Greene, calling her a “real winner” on Twitter on Wednesday.

What is his role in fueling the QAnon movement?

“A lot of people have said he has sort of a tacit acceptance of it by not speaking out against it. But regardless of what you can and can’t say about how Trump feels about the movement, it revolves around him. The crux of it is that there’s this deep state working against President Trump. … And certainly the people who believe this conspiracy theory are very supportive of Trump,” says Mutnick.