ATLANTA — Republican Clayton Fuller was cruising to victory in the special election runoff Tuesday night to select a successor for former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to unofficial results.
Fuller, a former district attorney endorsed by President Donald Trump, held more than a 10 percentage point margin over Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, with most of the 10 counties in Congressional District 14 fully reporting.
“Tonight showed that GA-14 is committed to supporting President Trump and sending an America First fighter to Washington,” Fuller said in a statement. “This victory couldn’t have happened without President Trump’s endorsement and the amazing patriots of Northwest Georgia.”
A month ago, Fuller and Harris emerged as the leaders among a field of 17 candidates seeking to replace Greene, who left office a year early after falling out with Trump, mainly over the release of files related to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats had hoped to make headway in the conservative northwest Georgia district after Harris led the field in the March 10 special election.
But there were only three Democrats vying for votes that night while Fuller had to split votes with 11 other Republicans.
Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, described Tuesday’s outcome as a Trump victory.
“Trump’s coattails are long, his movement is alive and well, and no amount of Hollywood cash or coastal elite endorsements could stop it,” McKoon said on social media, an apparent reference to the endorsement of Harris by actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Fuller said he would be “a strong vote for the President’s MAGA agenda in Washington and giving GA-14 a conservative voice again.”
Fuller will be back on the campaign trail soon: had Greene remained in office, she would have had to run for re-election, starting with the May 19 primary.
On that date, Fuller will face a rematch with nine of the 16 Republicans he vanquished last month.
Should he win against them, he will face a rematch with Harris on Nov. 3.
Harris was the only Democrat to qualify for the upcoming primary. It will be his third attempt to win the Congressional seat, having lost to Greene in 2024 when he secured 36% of the vote.
Among those Fuller defeated in March and will be facing again next month is former state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, a Trump devotee who resigned early this year to contest the Congressional race.
Voters on Tuesday put another Republican in Moore’s former seat: Lanny Thomas defeated Democrat John Bentley “Jack” Zibluk in the race to represent the 53rd state Senate district, which spans the northwest corner of Georgia, including Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd and Walker counties.
In DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, Venola Mason defeated Kelly Kautz in the runoff to replace former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, who resigned in January and pleaded guilty to charges that she fraudulently obtained $13,940 in unemployment supplements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a Richmond County state House runoff, Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson defeated Republican Thomas McAdams to take the seat previously held by state Rep. Lynn Heffner, D-Augusta, who resigned after moving out of the district because of damage to her house caused by Hurricane Helene.