Trump-backed Clay Fuller wins the seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene
The district attorney, with the president’s explicit support, won the election in the conservative stronghold amid worries about discontent among the Republican’s core voters
While half the world held its breath awaiting US President Donald Trump’s decision on his threat to end Iranian civilization on Tuesday if the Islamist regime did not yield to his demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, some 725,000 citizens in Georgia’s 14th district went to the polls to elect the successor to the controversial Marjorie Taylor Greene as representative in the House of Representatives.
District Attorney Clay Fuller has won the special election runoff against Democrat Shawn Harris and will fill the seat vacated by Taylor Greene on January 5 after her bitter falling out with Donald Trump. Fuller’s victory allows Republicans to widen their narrow lead over Democrats in Congress, at least until the midterm elections in November. There were fears that Taylor Greene’s public break could spark a rebellion among the president’s supporters in a deeply Republican district.
Fuller received Trump’s unequivocal support. The U.S. president posted a message on Tuesday endorsing the former prosecutor and urging people to vote for him after the polls had opened. “I am asking all Republicans, America First Patriots, and MAGA Warriors, to please GET OUT AND VOTE for a fantastic Candidate, Clay Fuller, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” he wrote.
Fuller entered the election with two promises aimed at Trump and his supporters. First, in a message clearly directed at Greene, he said: “I will be on Capitol Hill as a warrior to have [Trump’s] back each and every day.” Second, he assured his followers, “I will never let you down.” Simple messages, the kind that are so prevalent these days in the United States.
Fuller will complete Taylor Greene’s term, which ends in early January. Furthermore, Fuller will face Harris again in the race for a full two-year term. The primaries will be held in May.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a very popular figure in the Republican Party until a few months ago, famously broke with Trump over the Epstein files and his arbitrary foreign policy. Taylor Greene was one of Trump’s main supporters during the last election campaign against Democrat Kamala Harris. The Republican from Georgia — who is a leader of a faction of the MAGA movement — has gone from being Trump’s indispensable ally to a traitor, in the words of the U.S. president.
“Lightweight Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green grass turns Brown when it begins to rot), betrayed the entire Republican Party when she turned Left, performed poorly on the pathetic view, and became the RINO that we all know she always was,” Trump posted on Truth Social in November, referring to the acronym for “Republican in name only.”
The reason for the split was Taylor Greene’s support for the release of Epstein’s files. She was also critical of Trump’s political trajectory. Since then, Greene has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics. On Tuesday, she called for his removal from office after he warned that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not comply with his demands.
That’s why Tuesday’s elections in Georgia were seen as a test to gauge Trump’s power before the midterm elections in November.
Fuller, who won the primary in Georgia, faced Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired army general and local rancher, who, despite the loss, performed well amid a growing wave of support among Democrats — a sign of voters’ unease with the Trump administration. When Greene won in 2014, he won in all 10 counties of the district. This time, Fuller was unable to repeat that feat, with Harris winning at least three counties. The two contenders faced off in a runoff election after receiving the most votes out of 17 candidates in the first round held in March.
Democrats are working to maintain the momentum that started last fall, when socialist Zohran Mamdani unexpectedly won the New York City mayoral race. Although they didn’t secure a victory in Georgia, the result in a much more challenging state does indicate that the trend is holding, and they hope it will continue until the midterm elections, where Trump’s support will truly be tested.
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