Republican Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Democrat Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.
But Fuller won with 56% of the vote, compared to Harris’s 44%, according to the Associated Press, a result that comes after Greene secured the district by 28 points in 2024 and 32 points two years earlier. Democrats claim the swing to the left in the north-western corner of Georgia is a notable shift that’s worth celebrating.
“I think it’s a win in my mind,” said Adrienne White Carden, a longtime Democratic political activist now running in a special election for the Georgia state senate in Gwinnett county. “It’s not an actual win in terms of having a new, well-qualified representative in Georgia’s 14th district … but it used to be unfathomable there for a Democrat to win… It’s incredible gains.”
Both men running to replace the former Trump ally turned critic, who resigned from Congress earlier this year, have considerable military credentials. Fuller is an air force reserve lieutenant colonel and military attorney. Harris is a retired brigadier general who has commanded combat troops in Afghanistan, Liberia and elsewhere, with his last active-duty assignment as a military attache in Israel.
On paper, the odds of a Harris win were slim. Georgia’s 14th congressional district voted for Trump by a two-to-one margin in 2024, which is nearly the same margin Harris lost to Greene in 2024. In line with special elections for Congress since the start of Trump’s term, the Democratic candidate overperformed. Harris improved on previous margins by about 25 points, one of the largest gains against Republicans in special elections for congress in this cycle. Harris said he will try again in November with a full congressional term on the table.
Trump’s war, which he had threatened to escalate on Tuesday evening before agreeing to a two-week ceasefire, is unpopular, with most Americans opposing the conflict, which Harris hoped to capitalize on in the campaign.
“This war that we’re in right now is a war of choice,” Harris said in the sole debate between the two during the campaign. “The president was advised not to do it. He did it and now we’re trying to figure out how are we going to get out of it … We should not put ground troops on the ground because this is not a war we should be in. We should be trying to pull back out of it.”
In that debate on 22 March, Fuller expressed his support for Trump’s actions. “Our country is safer because of what President Trump has done regarding Iran,” Fuller said. “You see that with just the news over the last couple of days. Iran fired a ballistic missile aimed at Diego Garcia where there are Americans stationed … [Iran] is a death cult that could not be negotiated with.”
Republicans currently hold the House with a three-vote margin, with three vacancies. The loss of Greene’s seat to a Democrat would have been an unthinkable blow to Republican prospects heading into the November midterm elections, so the contest drew outsized attention. Samuel L Jackson recorded an ad for Harris, and Pete Buttigieg joined Harris on the campaign trail.
Fuller kept a comparably lower profile after placing second in the open “jungle” primary amid a field of more than a dozen Republican candidates splitting conservative voters. Fuller benefitted from his relationship with Trump as a former White House aide and a relationship with voters as the elected prosecutor in north Georgia’s Lookout Mountain judicial circuit.
Harris significantly out-raised Fuller with $6.5m to Fuller’s $1.2m. But outside organizations have used nearly $2m in additional spending to attack Harris.
“Who runs negative ads against somebody who doesn’t have a chance?” Harris asked in an interview with the Guardian. “Democrats are motivated. Independents are motivated and upset with Trump.”
Melita Easters, executive director of Georgia WIN List, a political organization supporting women as political candidates, said the race shows that Republicans should be worried about future contests in the state.
“Every county in that district shifted more blue with that runoff,” she said. “If it shifted that much, where Republicans really have to worry are some of the other districts.”
Three of Georgia’s congressional seats held by Republicans have no incumbent running in November. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter are both challenging US senator Jon Ossoff and representative Barry Loudermilk is retiring.
Additionally, for the first time in 70 years, four of the statewide constitutional offices – governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general – will be open at once, Easters said. Given the historically tight margins for recent statewide elections, a shift in Democratic results in special elections may presage a break on the Republican hold on state politics, she said.
“It’s a question of what kind of ground game both sides are able to put together,” Easters said. “On the Republican side, you’ve got this nasty, mean governor’s race, and that’s going to be a mean primary. You’ve got a fairly contentious US senate race. … How quickly do they put themselves back together again for November, set aside the differences of the primaries for a united front in November.”
The results of a less-watched race for an open state senate seat within Georgia’s 14th congressional district may demonstrate the shift in margins in comparison. Lanny Thomas handily defeated Jack Zibluk by 69-31 on Tuesday, to succeed state senator Colton Moore, who resigned his seat to enter the congressional contest. Moore was a firebrand Trump supporter and controversial figure in office; in his 2024 election he defeated his Democratic opponent 79-21. Thomas’ margin was about 10 points narrower.
“I got a lot of bipartisan support on a personal level, but I also got a lot of ‘gee, you’re a great guy, I just wish you didn’t have that D after your name,’” Zibluk said. “The brand is so toxic in this part of the world that it’s a bit of a burden.”
