As Georgia gears up for Tuesday’s runoff election to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republicans are investing heavily to prevent any surprises or a close contest with the Democratic contender. This race holds significant implications for the party, especially with the midterm elections looming.
Greene, initially a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, has since shifted her stance and become a critic. She announced her decision to leave Congress in November, stating she would step down early in the new year.
In the special election held last month, Republican Clayton Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris emerged as the leading candidates. This contest, which featured candidates from both parties on the ballot, did not yield a majority winner, prompting the need for a runoff.
In response, Republican-affiliated groups have ramped up their efforts, deploying a range of advertising strategies to mobilize GOP voters. Their aim is to maintain dominance in a district that overwhelmingly supported Trump by nearly 37 percentage points. Greene herself secured her victory against Harris by a margin of nearly 29 points.
According to a report by Punchbowl News on Monday, these Republican groups have poured over $1.5 million into television, digital advertising, and direct mail campaigns to boost voter turnout among their base.
Punchbowl News reported Monday that outside Republican groups have spent more than $1.5 million on TV ads, digital ads and mailers to increase GOP turnout in a district that went for Trump by nearly 37 points. Greene won her district – against Harris – by nearly 29 points.
If Harris can winnow that margin down to single digits it could suggest the GOP is in for a shellacking in the coming midterms, in which they’re trying to hold onto their Congressional majority.
Still, the Republican panic is likely overblown, with prediction markets giving Fuller a 98 percent chance of a win in the deep red district.
In a run-off race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Democrat Shane Harris (left) is running against Republican Clayton Fuller (right)
Outside Republican groups have 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
Trump endorsed Fuller in a Truth Social post on February 4, but later appeared to forget that he had done so, while addressing reporters on Air Force One.
‘They say whoever I endorse is going to win. But we have a lot of good candidates that want to take her place,’ Trump said on February 16.
The White House wouldn’t say whether Trump had forgotten that he had already made an endorsement in the race, instead pointing the Daily Mail to his original endorsement post.
Trump reposted the endorsement two days after the flight.
The Daily Mail found that Fuller previously donated $250 to James Mackler, a former Democratic candidate for the US Senate.
He also ran for Congress in 2020 and was endorsed by the With Honor Fund, a bipartisan group focused on electing military veterans with the aim of ending political polarization.
The group has endorsed Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans, with Emma Bloomberg, the daughter of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-Democrat, sitting on the group’s advisory board.
Both Fuller and Harris are military veterans as the Iran war becomes a major voting issue.
Shawn Harris, the Democrat hoping 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
Harris is a retired Army brigadier general who has been critical of Trump’s involvement in Iran.
Despite being a Democrat, his comments align more closely with Greene’s.
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.’
Harris, who’s also a cattle farmer, said in a CNN interview Saturday morning that Iran was a ‘war of choice’
‘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.
Clayton Fuller, the Republican candidate to replace Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, will likely win Tuesday’s runoff against Democrat Shawn Harris, but the race has some Republican outside groups jittery and so they’re funding ads to make sure GOP voters show up at the polls
‘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, has been supportive of the war – though hasn’t made that support a 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.’
