Republican Clay Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris advanced Tuesday from a crowded field to a runoff in the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, NBC News projects.
Fuller, a district attorney who was one of 17 Republicans on the ballot, benefited from President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the solidly GOP district in the northwest corner of the state. Harris, a retired Army brigadier general and cattle rancher, lost to Greene in the 2024 general election in the 14th District.
With 52% of the expected vote in, Harris was at 41% while Fuller was at 33%. But Fuller enters the April 7 runoff as the favorite in a district Trump carried by 37 percentage points in the 2024 presidential race.
Fuller touted the president’s endorsement on the airwaves and spoke at a recent event with Trump in the district and And he received a boost from Conservatives for American Excellence, a group funded by GOP megadonor Paul Singer, and Club for Growth Action.
Fuller’s first run for Congress came in 2020, when he lost a crowded GOP primary race in the district to Greene.
Harris raised $4.3 million throughout his campaign, and launched ads knocking “out of touch politicians” from both parties who “don’t understand how difficult things are for hardworking Georgians.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg endorsed Harris in the race, saying, “There’s no such thing as a permanently red state or district.”
Greene, who won re-election in by 29 points in 2024, resigned in January after breaking with Trump on his handling of the records related to the federal government’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.
A onetime vocal Trump ally, Greene also criticized the president’s focus on foreign affairs, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” before she stepped down, “‘America First’ should mean what was promised on the campaign trail in 2024.”
“So my understanding of ‘America First’ is strictly for the American people,” Greene said in Janunary, “not for the big donors that donate to big politicians, not for the special interests that constantly roam the halls in Washington, and not foreign countries that demand their priorities put first over Americans.
Georgia’s rules for special elections dictate that all candidates, regardless of party, appear on the same ballot. With 22 candidates on the ballot, it was unlikely that any candidate could win a majority of the vote and avoid a runoff.
Republican Colton Moore, a former state senator, was in a distant third at with just over 10% of the vote.
Although he did not have Trump’s endorsement, Moore cast himself as the truest supporter of the “Make America Great Again” movement, saying at a recent candidate forum that voters who “100% support President Trump” should back his candidacy.
Moore was arrested earlier this year when he tried to enter Gov. Brian Kemp’s state of the state address after the state House speaker banned him from the chamber. Moore was also removed from the state Senate GOP caucus for chastising fellow Republicans for refusing to impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after indicting Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
[/gpt3]
