Republican Clay Fuller closed the deal on Tuesday, winning a special runoff election to represent Georgia’s deep-red 14th Congressional District, according to the Associated Press. Fuller will finish out the term of former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—a once a staunch supporter and ally of President Donald Trump who resigned in January as she became one of the President’s most prominent critics.
Fuller, a veteran and a district attorney, took on Democrat Shawn Harris in a district where Trump carried 68% of the vote in 2024. The win for Fuller, who Trump endorsed, expands the Republican party’s slim majority in the House to 218-214, as Democrats hope a “blue wave” in this year’s midterm elections will give them control of the chamber.
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Amid Greene’s recent repudiation of Trump and much of the Republican Party, Fuller campaigned as a “MAGA warrior,” trying to “keep Georgia red.” Greene refused to endorse in the race to replace her. Her bitter falling out with Trump came over the Administration’s handling of the Epstein Files, Trump’s involvement in Israel’s war with Gaza, and the Administration’s conflicts with Iran.
“This [is] NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024,” Greene said on X on Sunday in response to Trump’s threats against Iran if its leaders do not open the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, she described Trump’s threat to wipe out “a whole civilization” as “evil and madness.”
Tuesday’s special election serves as one of the first glimpses of how the war in Iran may be impacting voter decisions. While both Fuller and Harris are veterans, their opinions on Trump’s war differed wildly. During a March 23 debate, Fuller backed Trump wholly on Iran, saying that the U.S. was “safer” due to the President’s actions. “It is a death cult that cannot be negotiated with,” he said of Iran in the debate.
“This war that we’re in right now is a war of choice,” countered Harris at the same event. “The focus should be [on] how do we get this economy back together, how do we take care of our farmers, and how do we take care of all the hardworking people in Northwest Georgia.” Harris, a cattle farmer, has also criticized how the war has led to skyrocketing prices for oil, fuel and fertilizer.
Fuller, who competed against Greene for the Republican nomination in 2020, will finish out Greene’s term through January 2027. But if he wants to remain in Congress beyond January, he will have to garner his party’s support in a May 19 Republican primary to take on Democrats again in November.
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