With the backing of former President Trump, a Republican candidate clinched a predictable win Tuesday evening in a runoff election to succeed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in a staunchly Republican district in Georgia.
Following some initial anxiety within the GOP, which saw external Republican groups investing heavily in the contest, Clayton Fuller emerged victorious over Democrat Shawn Harris, securing the seat in the House of Representatives previously held by MTG.
Despite the loss, Harris seemed to gain some traction in a region that had overwhelmingly supported Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 by a margin of 37 points and favored MTG over Harris—the same Democratic contender in the current election—by 29 points.
This outcome may signal a cause for concern among Republicans as they brace for the November midterm elections.
The election featured a face-off between two military veterans, with the ongoing Iran war becoming an increasingly significant issue for voters.
Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, campaigned on a platform that included vocal criticism of the Iran war.
His rhetoric on the war has been similar to Greene’s – who went from MAGA diehard to vocal critic of President Donald Trump.
The Trump-backed Republican hopeful Clayton Fuller running to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke to the press after voting Tuesday in Lookout Mountain, Georgia
Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Shawn Harris speaks to supporters ahead of a March to the Polls event Tuesday in Rome, Georgia
Greene announced in November she was calling Congress quits and left the body in early January.
The former congresswoman is among those in Trump’s MAGA base who felt he should have stuck to his campaign promise of keeping the country out of ‘forever’ wars.
Reacting to Trump’s foul-mouthed Easter post, in which he ordered Iran to open the ‘F***in’ Strait, you crazy bas*****,’ Greene posted to X Sunday that she thought the 79-year-old President had ‘gone insane.’
‘This [is] NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024, I know, I was there more than most,’ she wrote. ‘This is not making America great again, this is evil.’
On Tuesday, after Trump threatened that a ‘whole civilization will die tonight,’ Greene joined droves of House Democrats in calling for the President to be removed via the 25th Amendment.
During the campaign, Harris tied the war in Iran to economic hardship.
‘I’ll always support our troops and the mission, but I won’t sign off on a forever war without answers,’ he posted to X Monday. ‘People here are getting crushed by gas, diesel, and fertilizer costs.’
The day before, he referred to the war in Iran as a ‘war of choice,’ during an interview with CNN.
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Georgia Republican congressional candidate Clayton Fuller votes in Tuesday’s runoff election to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
Outside Republican groups had spent $1.5 million on TV ads, digital ads and mailers to remind voters to go to the polls to support GOP hopeful Clay Fuller (left) who was endorsed by President Donald Trump (right) in February
Shawn Harris, the Democrat that had hoped to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in a deep red Congressional district, is a retired Army brigadier general who has been critical of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran
‘We shouldn’t have been in it in the first place and Iran is not going to be an easy target,’ the Democrat continued.
When asked what his message was to voters who previously backed Greene, Harris pointed at the economy.
‘I focus on kitchen table issues and making sure we’re taking care of the people here in Northwest Georgia, period,’ he answered.
Fuller, an Air National Guard veteran who was previously deployed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which has been a focus of Iranian strikes, voiced support for the war but didn’t make it the centerpiece of his campaign.
‘Our country is safe because of what President Trump has done regarding Iran,’ he said at a debate last month at the Atlanta Press Club. ‘It is a death cult that cannot be negotiated with.’
The Republican hopeful also gave Trump high marks on the economy in the March 22 debate.
‘The policies of President Trump are working for the people of GA-14,’ Fuller said. ‘Again, he inherited the worst economic inflationary crisis than any president in the last 50 years.’
