Clay Fuller, a former state prosecutor, won a special election runoff on Tuesday to fill the U.S. House seat in Georgia previously held by Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to The Associated Press, a victory that replaces a conspiracy minded conservative with a more mainstream Republican.
Mr. Fuller, 44, defeated Shawn Harris, a moderate Democrat who was the top vote-getter in a jungle-style primary last month for the 14th Congressional District in Northwest Georgia. But that race featured 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans. With only two candidates on Tuesday’s ballot, Mr. Fuller consolidated Republican support to win one of Georgia’s most conservative districts.
Mr. Fuller’s victory is a win for President Trump, who endorsed him, visited the district in February and appeared onstage with his chosen candidate. In the first round of voting, the endorsement helped give Mr. Fuller a leg up over Colton Moore, a former state senator and auctioneer who shared aspects of Ms. Greene’s audacious style and penchant for spectacle. The special election was made necessary when Ms. Greene left Congress in January.
Mr. Moore is an outspoken Trump fan, but was known for quarreling with Republican leaders in the legislature. Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Fuller was seen as an effort to find a Republican who was more apt to fall in line with Speaker Mike Johnson and support Mr. Trump’s agenda at a time when Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the chamber.
Mr. Fuller, a lieutenant in the Air National Guard, holds degrees from Emory University, Cornell University and Southern Methodist University, where he attended law school.
Before Mr. Trump’s endorsement, he had mostly drawn attention for social media posts assailing Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York, for being a “beta” male who could not bench press much weight. The attack prompted a columnist for The Chattanooga Times Free Press to lament the “deeply unserious race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
When he shared the stage with Mr. Trump in February, Mr. Fuller called him “the greatest president in our country’s history.” On the campaign trail, Mr. Fuller said he would support an “America First economy” for a district that includes Dalton, Ga., a center of flooring and carpet manufacturing. Mr. Fuller has also promised to be tough on crime, and to support what his campaign website has described as “mass deportation now.”
In social media posts, Mr. Fuller appeared to support Mr. Trump’s unproven assertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and cheered federal agents’ seizure of ballots from the 2020 race from a government building in Fulton County, Ga.
“President Trump is going to be proven correct once again,” he said.
Richard Fausset, a Times reporter based in Atlanta, writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal justice.
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