ATLANTA — The crowded race to succeed former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will come down to a runoff between a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump and a Democrat seeking an upset in a conservative northwest Georgia district.
Republican Clayton Fuller, a former prosecutor, and Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, will meet in an April 7 runoff, according to unofficial results of a special election Tuesday.
They emerged as the leaders among a field of 17 candidates seeking to replace Greene, who resigned in January after splitting with Trump on foreign policy and the release of files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Neither candidate received a majority of votes needed to win the special election outright Tuesday night. Harris led the field, while Fuller garnered the most votes among 12 Republican candidates who split the GOP electorate.
A voter prepares to cast his ballot at Northstar Church in in Cobb County during a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Seventeen candidates were on the ballot for the special election to fill former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional seat. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
Fuller’s second-place finish eliminates from contention pro-Trump firebrand and former state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton.
Trump’s backing of Fuller helped boost him into a head-to-head runoff with Harris, who lost to Greene with 36% of the vote in 2024.
“Voters in Georgia are fired up to send a strong conservative to represent them in Washington. Clay will be a strong ally of President Trump and help House Republicans grow the economy, secure the border, and keep Americans safe,” said Reilly Richardson, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Harris recognized the challenge of winning the runoff but said voters are increasingly supporting his campaign.
“This race isn’t over. Northwest Georgia showed up in a BIG way, and now we head to a runoff,” Harris said on X. “Momentum is real. The coalition is growing. Let’s finish what we started. On to the runoff.”
The winner of the April runoff will fill the remaining months of Greene’s two-year term.
After the runoff, a primary in May and potential runoff in June will decide each party’s nominees for the November general election.
Voters cast their ballots at Northstar Church in in Cobb County during a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District seat in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. Seventeen candidates were on the ballot for the special election to fill former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s congressional seat. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
Three other special elections Tuesday for seats in the Georgia General Assembly are also heading to runoffs April 7.
Republican Lanny Thomas will face Democrat Jack Zibluk in the race for Moore’s former seat in the state Senate, which covers the northwest corner of Georgia including Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, and Walker counties.
A state House race between four Democrats in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties will also be decided by a runoff between Venola Mason and Kelly Kautz 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 will face Republican Thomas McAdams. The winner will 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 from Hurricane Helene.
ATLANTA — The Georgia House completed its work on the budget that will control state spending for the fiscal year starting in July, sending a $38.5 billion spending plan to the Senate Tuesday.
House Bill 974 proposes a 2% increase over the current budget approved this time last year, although lawmakers increased the remaining portion of this year’s spending significantly — to $43.7 billion — in the amended current-year budget that Gov. Brian Kemp signed in early March.
Similar changes are probably in store for the new proposal this time next year. Until then, priorities include funding for education, health care, prisons and poverty, with a nod to problems caused by feral hogs.
Public schools are again consuming more than a third of the budget. The $14.9 billion allocated to elementary, middle and high schools was driven up $14.5 million by the state education funding formula, which considers enrollment and teacher pay grades based on qualifications and experience.
Add in billions for colleges, universities and technical schools, and education takes close to half the state budget. The University System of Georgia, for instance, got a $218 million increase in formula-driven state funding due to nearly 5% enrollment growth.
One of the House’s biggest priorities this year is literacy in the early grades, with $60 million added to the budget for reading interventions through third grade.
There is money for teacher training and for eye and hearing exams on school campuses. There is money for curricula and testing.
The biggest cost is for more than 1,300 classroom literacy coaches.
The House budgeted $31.2 million, which works out to about $24,000 per coach. The experienced educators required for the role earn at least two to three times that amount, and lawmakers know it. But it is difficult to estimate in advance how many will get hired over the next year, and at what pay grade. So House leaders said they expect to add money in the next amended budget a year from now.
“This is a massive downpayment on a historic investment,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
The on ramp to literacy begins before kindergarten, so the House added $10 million for after school care for pre-kindergarten students, and $700,000 for another 25 pre-kindergarten classrooms. The House also moved money around in a way that “frees up” another $10 million in federal funds to add 1,288 students to the pre-k financial assistance program.
The budget “represents the House’s dedication to championing Georgia’s students, children, families and communities in every corner of our great state,” Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said in a statement after the House sent the budget to the Senate by a 159-4 vote.
Among the items he highlighted, besides literacy and pre-k, was $5 million to expand student mental health services and $10 million more toward rural airport aid.
Hatchett said one of his favorite line items was an additional $11.8 million for the Medicaid dental program to raise reimbursement rates and encourage more dentists to serve recipients.
Providing medical care is a challenge, particularly in rural areas. So expanding service has been a priority for lawmakers. To that end, the budget adds $18.2 million for graduate medical education, with $4.7 million toward 147 new primary care slots.
It also puts another $101 million toward prisons, a third of it to hire more correctional officers to reduce the ratio with inmates down from the current 1-12.
And it adds $11 million for more staffers to confirm food stamp enrollees are eligible. Georgia has one of the highest “error” rates in the country. That can mean loss of federal funding, so lawmakers hope to get it down.
There is also another $2 million to draw federal matching funds for a new summer food program for kids in poverty called SUN Bucks.
Feral hogs will not like this budget.
It contains $500,000 for a Department of Natural Resources hog management pilot program and another $400,000 for a hog eradication incentive program.
Hatchett explained that line item on the House floor Tuesday.
“Feral hogs are wreaking havoc statewide,” he said, “causing millions of dollars of damage to crops and farms each year.”
ATLANTA — One thing that Georgia’s House and Senate can agree on after finishing the first round of this year’s legislative session is that the state income tax rate should continue falling.
Friday was the deadline for lawmakers to vote out the bills they were most serious about, moving them from the House to the Senate and vice versa.
The Senate had already sent legislation to the House last month that would cut the income tax rate to 3.99%.
On Friday, the House kicked a bill to the Senate with the same tax rate reduction and with an increase to the standard deduction that was similar to what was in the Senate bill.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the architect of the House measure, said it would cost the state $600 million in the first full year of implementation.
Democrats ridiculed the Republican plan, asserting that two-thirds of the tax cut would go to the wealthiest fifth of the population while leaving less money for services, such as education. Most Georgians might see a few hundred dollars while the rich would get thousands, said Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, the House minority whip.
“We must stop these tax cuts for the rich if we want to lift all Georgians up.”
Republicans flipped the logic.
Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, said that if the top 20% would get two-thirds of the benefit, then they are paying that same proportion of the income tax now.
“The math goes both ways,” he said.
House Bill 880 then passed 102-69.
It would reduce the income tax rate a tenth of a percentage point per year, conditioned upon continued growth in state revenue, until the rate reached 3.99%.
The current income tax rate is 5.19%. But, last month, state representatives passed passed House Bill 1001, which would drop it to 4.99% retroactive to the start of this year. If the Senate embraces both, then it would take a decade to reach 3.99%.
HB 880 would simultaneously increase the standard deduction. It is $12,000 for a single filer now and would increase $600 a year until reaching $18,000 in a decade. These numbers would double for married couples filing jointly.
This approach differs only by degrees from Senate Bill 477 passed by senators early last month. Their approach would reduce the rate to 3.99% much sooner, by 2028. It would raise the standard deduction a little less, to $16,000 for individuals and $32,000 for married couples.
That 3.99% rate was the Senate’s second priority, the first being Senate Bill 476 to increase the standard deduction to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples.
To make both options palatable, the Senate handed the House what Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the designer of the two Senate bills, described as an “olive branch.”
He scooped out the contents of two unrelated measures the House had sent the Senate last year and, like a baker filling a donut with custard, squeezed in the language from the two Senate bills. House Bill 463 mirrors SB 477, and House Bill 134 copies SB 476.
So, now the House has two bills that would reduce the income tax rate to 3.99% — one that just reached the Senate and another that just got lobbed back from there.
Either by chance or design (probably the latter), HB 463 — the bill the Senate gutted before tossing it back to the House filled with a 3.99% income tax rate— was originally authored by Blackmon. He is the same state representative who rallied House Republicans to send HB 880, for a 3.99% tax rate, to the Senate on Friday.
There are bragging rights on the campaign trail for getting bills passed, and all seats are up for election this year.
Tillery, when he was asked about HB 880 versus HB 463 outside the Capitol Monday, echoed a line that is often attributed to Harry S. Truman.
“There’s no limit on what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit,” said Tillery, who is running for lieutenant governor and has spoken quite a bit about the Senate Republicans’ tax cutting agenda. “I don’t care who gets the credit.”
Meanwhile, many other bills failed to advance this year, including proposals to eliminate all property taxes, legalize sports betting, allow breweries to sell beer in stores, and make lemon pepper wings Georgia’s official wing flavor.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, called the income tax cut that his chamber sent to the Senate on Friday a “historic effort by the General Assembly to deliver meaningful relief.”
“Tax dollars belong to the people, not the government. That’s why the Georgia House was proud to pass legislation to put more money back in the pockets of the people who earned it,” Burns said.
House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, said Republicans blocked bills focused on making life more affordable, such as proposals to expand health insurance, build more homes for people with low incomes, and subsidize child care.
“Georgia families are sitting at their kitchen tables tonight doing math that doesn’t add up: working more hours, falling further behind, choosing between prescriptions and groceries, wondering if they’ll ever be able to afford a home in the community where they grew up,” Hugley said.
Here’s a look at some of the key proposals remaining in this year’s legislative session, which ends April 2.
Senators rejected a bill that would have prevented electric utilities from passing on the costs of data centers to other customers, instead opting to abolish tax exemptions for computer equipment and other technology used by data centers. The House passed a separate bill that aims to shield consumers from some costs incurred by new data centers. Critics say neither bill goes far enough to protect residents and businesses from rising power bills.
Lawmakers are considering sending literacy coaches to elementary schools and banning cellphones in high schools, measures that they say will improve students’ academic outcomes.
The way Georgians vote could change from touchscreens to paper ballots filled out by hand. State law already requires the end of computerized QR codes used by touchscreens by July 1. But legislators are still looking for an alternative. The Senate defeated a proposal for hand-marked paper ballots Friday amid warnings that a swift change would cause “chaos.” Legislators plan to continue working on the issue in the closing weeks of this year’s session.
Abuses of artificial intelligence would be reigned in. The Senate passed a bill Friday that aims to protect minors from AI by limiting sexually explicit material and disclosing that online interactions aren’t with a real person. Another Senate bill would make “virtual peeping” a crime by prohibiting the use of AI to virtually undress people.
For any bill to pass, it must be approved by both the House and Senate before the end of this year’s legislative session.
Then Gov. Brian Kemp would decide whether to make those bills law or veto them.
ATLANTA — Georgia House Republicans pushed through a new proposal to address fast-rising property tax bills just ahead of the Friday deadline to move legislation between the House and Senate
House Bill 1116 has been evolving constantly, having started the year as a vehicle to eliminate property taxes.
The new version would merely aim to restrain rather than eliminate property taxes. It would cap annual increases at the greater of 3% or the rate of inflation under the federal Consumer Price Index.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, has been re-writing the bill at a feverish pace, converting it to a measure that he said would not require a constitutional amendment. A companion measure that would have placed a referendum to change the constitution on the ballot failed on the House floor Tuesday.
Republicans characterized the new HB 1116 as a way to address runaway housing prices.
“This is a pragmatic, level-headed solution to the problem,” said Rep. Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie.
Democrats didn’t think so. The bill passed over their objections 98-68.
“All of my cities are telling me it’s going to gut their operations,” said Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta. “This is insane.”
She said it would rip more than $50 million out of the budget of Sandy Springs, reducing money available for core services like public safety. She called it a “defund the police” bill.
The measure would also allow local governments to use a penny sales tax to offset property taxes.
ATLANTA — The slate of candidates for this year’s Georgia elections is now set, sparking a fierce competition before primaries in two months and general elections in November.
Voters will have many choices up and down the ballot, including elections for governor, Congress and all 236 seats in the General Assembly. Qualifying to run for office ended Friday.
The race for governor drew a crowded field from both Republicans and Democrats to replace Gov. Brian Kemp, who will leave office after serving two terms.
The top candidates on the Republican ballot for governor include Attorney General Chris Carr, health care executive Rick Jackson, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates include former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves, state Rep. Derrick Jackson, and former DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond.
This year’s elections will also shake up Georgia’s congressional delegation, no matter who wins.
Four out of Georgia’s 14 U.S. House members aren’t seeking reelection, all of them Republicans.
U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins are instead running for U.S. Senate against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. Former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley is also in the Republican race for Senate.
In addition, U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk is retiring, and former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January.
Among Democrats, longtime U.S. Rep. David Scott faces challenges from former Gwinnett County school board chair Everton Blair, state Rep. Jasmine Clark, and state Sen. Emanuel Jones.
Statewide offices drew plenty of intraparty competition, from lieutenant governor to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The races for lieutenant governor are dominated by rivalries among state senators. Republicans running for Georgia’s No. 2 job include Sens. Gregory Dolezal, Blake Tillery, and Steve Gooch, along with former Sen. John F. Kennedy. Democrats will pick between Sens. Josh McLaurin and Nabilah Parkes.
Two Democrats are mounting challenges against incumbent Georgia Supreme Court justices. Former state Sen. Jen Jordan is seeking to unseat Justice Sarah Warren, and trial attorney Miracle Rankin is running against Justice Charlie Bethel.
Georgia’s primary elections are scheduled for May 19, followed by runoffs June 16 if necessary. The winners of each party’s primaries will face off in the general election Nov. 3.
