Trump-endorsed Clay Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris are moving ahead in the race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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 state representative who was one of 17 Republicans on the ballot, benefited from President Donald Trump’s endorsement in a strong GOP district in the northwest corner of the state. Harris, a retired Army Brigadier General and rancher, lost to Greene in the 2024 general election in the 14th district.
With 64% of the vote expected, Harris was at 40% and Fuller at 35%. But Fuller enters the April 7 runoff as the favorite in a district Trump carried by 37 points in the 2024 presidential race.
Fuller praised the president’s endorsement on the radio and spoke at a recent event with Trump in the region and received encouragement from Conservatives for American Excellence, a group funded by GOP megadonor Paul Singer, and the Club for Growth Action.
Fuller’s first race for Congress came in 2020, when he lost a tight GOP district race to Greene.
Harris raised $4.3 million throughout his campaign, and ran ads that “outed politicians” from both parties who “don’t understand how hard it is for hard-working Georgians.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg endorsed Harris in the race, saying, “There is no such thing as a state or a red district forever.”
Greene, who won re-election by 29 points in 2024, resigned in January after parting ways with Trump over his handling of records related to the federal government’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.
A former Trump ally, Greene also criticized the president’s focus on foreign affairs, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” before he stepped down, “‘America First’ must mean what was promised in the 2024 campaign.”
“So my understanding of ‘America First’ is for the American people only,” Greene said in January, “not for the big donors who give to the big politicians, not for the special interests that always roam the halls of Washington, and not for foreign countries that want their priorities to be put before America’s.”
Georgia’s special election laws require all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to appear at the same polling place. With 22 votes cast, it was unlikely that any candidate would win a majority and avoid a runoff.
Republican Colton Moore, a former state senator, came in a distant third with just over 11 percent of the vote.
Despite not being endorsed by Trump, Moore has made himself a true supporter of the “Make America Great Again” movement, saying at a recent voter forum that voters who “support President Trump 100%” should support his election.
Moore was arrested earlier this year when he tried to enter on behalf of Gov. Brian Kemp after the Speaker of the State House barred him from entering the house. Moore was also removed from the state’s GOP Senate Caucus for chastising fellow Republicans for refusing to criticize Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she accused Trump of trying to subvert the 2020 election.
