In the lead-up to Tuesday’s runoff election in Georgia, Republicans are significantly investing in efforts to secure a win in the race to succeed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. There’s a palpable sense of urgency to prevent a potential upset or narrow victory against the Democratic challenger, which could prove embarrassing as the midterm elections loom. Greene, once a staunch supporter of the MAGA movement who has since distanced herself from President Donald Trump, declared her upcoming departure from Congress last November. The special election saw Republican Clayton Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris emerging as the frontrunners, necessitating a runoff after neither managed to secure over 50 percent of the vote.

Since the initial vote, Republican-aligned organizations have been pouring funds into a barrage of advertisements aimed at galvanizing GOP voters to participate in the runoff. According to Punchbowl News, more than $1.5 million has been spent by these groups on television and digital ads, as well as mailers, in an effort to boost Republican turnout in a district that favored Trump by a margin of nearly 37 points. Greene herself had previously defeated Harris by nearly 29 points in this area.

A close race could signal trouble for Republicans in the approaching midterms, as they strive to maintain their majority in Congress. However, the concern may be overstated, as prediction markets currently give Fuller a 98 percent likelihood of victory in this staunchly Republican district. Although Trump endorsed Fuller on February 4 via a post on Truth Social, he seemed to forget this endorsement later when speaking to reporters aboard 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 remarked on February 16, illustrating the array of contenders eager to step into Greene’s shoes.

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. 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 ‘[Expletive]’ Strait, you crazy [expletive],’ 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. ‘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.’