The Republican candidate, endorsed by former President Trump, secured a decisive win on Tuesday night in a Georgia runoff election to succeed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in a heavily conservative district.
Amid some Republican concerns, which led to external GOP groups investing heavily in the contest, Republican candidate Clayton Fuller overcame his Democratic opponent, Shawn Harris, to claim Greene’s former seat in the House of Representatives.
Despite the loss, Harris seemed to make slight headway in a district that had previously favored Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris by a significant 37-point margin in 2024, and Greene over Harris, the same Democratic contender in this race, by 29 points.
This shift might raise further concerns among Republicans as the November midterm elections approach.
The election featured a matchup between two military veterans, with the ongoing Iran war emerging as a significant issue influencing voters.
Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, consistently voiced his opposition to the Iran war throughout his campaign efforts.
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.
Join the discussion
Has Trump’s approach to war and the economy helped or harmed everyday families in Georgia?
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.’
